It is two months and two weeks since Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike imposed a curfew on Bonny Local Government Area and Onne Community in Eleme Local Government Area on July 10, 2020.

Local economies of these particular parts of the State have been shut down since then with residents groaning under the harsh economic climate they have had to endure.

It is on this premise that the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has called on the Governor to end the curfew, especially, in Bonny LGA, urging him to consider how inimical it has been to the local economy of the area.  

Chairman of IYC, Ibani Clan, Princewill Oko-Jumbo made this call in a chat with Kristina Reports today, stating that with the easing of the lockdown across the country by the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, it was imperative that the State Chief Executive cues in and relaxes the curfew to the federal government’s 12 midnight to 4am timeline.

“The Governor should call off the curfew in Bonny or he should cue into the Federal Government’s own curfew of 12midnight to 4am. Bonny is an industrial area where people come back from site in the evening and there is nowhere to buy foodstuffs to prepare what they will eat.”

“The poor masses who are mainly petty traders need the evening period to sell their goods, that is the period they make their money but now people are suffering because of the curfew.”

The Ijaw youth leader appealed to the Governor to call off the curfew so that life can be easy for the people of the area, stressing that “you cannot trap people down and prevent them from making money to feed their families.”

“Look at all these women that are frying yam, plantain, fish and other things, how do they survive. Imagine the way people are suffering in the town. This is not fair, he should try and end the curfew so that life can bounce back.”