Soldiers were yesterday drafted to the Rivers State Government House as the exchange of gunfire between rival cultists which has characterised daily life in Port Harcourt, the state capital, since Tuesday continued last night.
The soldiers were seen in front of both the new and old Government House gates.
At the entrance of the new Government House, the soldiers mixed with the normal police security, were seen punishing some boys by making them lie down on the hot tarred road.
About six soldiers dressed in battle gear and sitting in a row stationed themselves at the old Government House gate.
Attempts to gauge the reaction of Governor Celestine Omehia to the threat to lives and properties in the state failed as the Commissioner of Infor-mation, Mr. Emma Okah, did not make any comments.
Subsequent calls to his phone were left unanswered.
Mostly affected by the shootings and detonation of dynamites yesterday were the Diobu and Sangana areas of the city where sporadic gunfire rent the air leaving passers-by scampering for safety.
Police Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) patrolled the streets, often helping to open road which the shootings had either closed or blocked in the deliberate move by the rampaging cultists to continue the siege on the town.
Between Nsukka and Udi streets, no fewer than four dynamites were detonated by the cultists and each time, the explosion sent people running in different directions. The popular and busy Ikwerre road was like a graveyard.
Banks on Ikwerre and Aba roads which had opened for business early in the morning had to close to customers most of who besieged the gates asking to be allowed in to withdraw money.
The cultists who had on different days spotted black on black, black on white among other dress codes yesterday decided to storm the streets only in their boxers while their top sides were bare.
THISDAY learnt the problem arose because a cult group was said to be angered by the alleged patronage of a rival group by the political powers in the state.
This allegedly made rival groups to want to prove that they were relevant as well.
Some cult groups have, however, denied any involvement.
Leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, Mr. Ateke Tom, denied any hand in the clashes said to be between him and Soboma George.
He said since he made peace and dropped his weapons, he had not declared any hostilities with any individual or group.
Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Dokubo Asari, accused the Rivers State Government of sponsoring the crises which it was not willing to stop.
Meanwhile, THISDAY was told that one of the cultists was wounded by dynamite he tried to detonate in the face off which severed his hand.
He was allegedly rushed to Okrika for treatment.
Aug92007