SECURITY agencies under the aegis of the Joint Task Force (JTF) will remain in Port Harcourt and its environs for the next six months in order to restore permanent peace in the State.
Governor Celestine Omehia gave this indication yesterday after a meeting with the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi; the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro; the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Luka Yusuf and other top security operatives at the Government House in Port Harcourt.
The governor, who had imposed a one-week dusk-to-dawn curfew on Port Harcourt last Friday, said the Federal Government and the Armed Forces had made it a point of duty to sanitise the State.
“I can assure you that in the next six months, there still will be presence of the military (in Port Harcourt),” he said.
“Visible or invisible, I must make it clear, you may see them or you may not see them, but they are there. The situation can never be the same in Rivers State.
“All we want is a permanent peace. The Federal Government has promised, the Forces have promised and it is going to be.”
Omehia noted that in 2004 when the State experienced a similar gang war, the government decided to dialogue with the warring factions, to persuade them to change from their destructive path.
But rather than take government’s initiative serious, they returned to the forest to foment further disturbance, he noted.
The governor said the approach is now different. “It is like the carrot and stick,” he said. “You take carrot, you eat it; all well and good. If you don’t want to eat the carrot, we give you the stick and that is what we have done.
“What happened in 2004 was the carrot. We gave them the carrot and they never changed. Now, since they don’t want the carrot, we are giving the stick and we will continue with the stick and it is going to be permanent.”
The governor described the relative calm in Port Harcourt at the weekend as admirable, and appealed to the people of the State to appreciate the situation of things as a temporary hardship and sacrifice in their quest for permanent peace in Rivers.
Omehia said the miscreants that perpetuated the recent unrest had left Port Harcourt for undisclosed destinations.
Okiro had earlier told journalists at the 2nd Amphibious Brigade headquarters of the JTF in the Port Harcourt that operations to rid the State of gangsters would continue until lasting peace was achieved.
Gen. Azazi spoke in the same vein.
Meanwhile, the JTF has continued its offensive against suspected gangs in the State, as arms and ammunition recovered from the several raids in Port Harcourt were displayed at the JTF headquarters, yesterday.