The Rivers State Police Command on Tuesday instructed companies and residents of Port Harcourt to screen vehicles before allowing them entry into their premises.
The command�s directive signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Ireju Barasua, on behalf of the Acting Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mr. Bassey Inyang, came in the wake of Monday�s car bomb blasts in Shell Petroleum Development Company�s compound and another near the gate of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company in Port Harcourt.
Although no life was lost to the blasts, no fewer than 13 vehicles were destroyed at the Shell Residential Area in Rumuokurushi along the busy Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway.
The statement said, �While investigation is being intensified in respect of the blasts in Port Harcourt, the general public is hereby admonished to thoroughly screen cars and persons visiting their dwelling places and companies in order to checkmate the activities of these hoodlums.�
�I want to reiterate that any attack on any person or place is an attack on society. As members of the society, at this yuletide period, we should all join hands to exterminate this virus of criminality which occurred in two places in Port Harcourt on Monday.�
The police statement coincided with the one released by members of the Mgbuesilaru community, hosts of the Shell Residential Area.
In a one-page statement issued in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, the Mgbuesilaru Council of Chiefs condemned in very strong terms the attack on the compound, describing it as barbaric and wicked.
Signed by Chiefs Innocent Ihunwo and Kennedy Wali, the traditional rulers said the attack was not targeted at SPDC but on the artisans from the community whose means of livelihood depended on the company.
It said, �By the action of the militants, 90 per cent of our women and others who depend on Shell and live in the community have been deprived of their means of sustenance because all of them were turned back by the company as they reported for work on Tuesday.�
The community called on the militants to desist from such dastardly acts so as to save the innocent from unnecessary suffering.