Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has joined his colleagues in other states, as he declared a 48-hour curfew across the state.
The curfew would begin 6pm today, according to the governor who addressed Government House reporters on Thursday morning. Apart from the curfew, the presentation of the 2021 budget estimates by Okowa to the House of Assembly, earlier for today has been postponed. The decision to declare the curfew, our correspondent learnt, followed Wednesday’s night violence that erupted at Koka area of Benin-Asaba-Onitsha expressway.
Hoodlums had allegedly hijacked the #EndSARS protest to unleash mayhem in the busy area by razing the operational office of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the multi-million naira beautification garden of the state government.
Although an unidentified army officer was said to have also been burnt alive, our correspondent could not however confirmed it from official sources.
As at the time of filing this report, major roads in the metropolis were already by barricaded by protesters, while businesses that forcefully closed shop on Wednesday afternoon were yet to re-open. Declaring the curfew, Okowa ordered the closure of all public and private primary and secondary schools till November 2, 2020. It would be recalled that schools had resumed academic activities for first in the 2020/2021 session on October 12 after the COVID-19 induced holiday of over six months.
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