Bayelsa declares curfew in Biseni as unrest spreads

From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

The Bayelsa State government has imposed a 24-hour curfew in Biseni Clan, Yenagoa Local Government Area, after law and order broke down in the area.

The people of the clan, led by women, had embarked on a protest against poor road infrastructure, blackout, lack of electricity, and exclusion from the Host Community Development Trust Fund, among others.

The protest had escalated with barricades stopping vehicular movement from accessing the area, crippling commerce and trade in the state. 

The protesters insisted that electricity must be restored in the community, roads in the clan should be rehabilitated, payment of the outstanding three per cent Host Community Trust Funds and improved community development and interventions by oil companies operating in the area.

The Mayor of Yenagoa, Hon Bulodisiye Ndiwari; Commissioner for Public Utilities, Kharin Komuko, and his counterpart in Mineral Resources, Peter Afagha, were deployed by the government to appeal to the women to end the protest, remove the barricades to allow contractors to return to site to continue the remedial works.

The women, however, rejected the pleas of the government delegation, maintaining that concrete actions towards accepting their demands must be seen before they would remove the barricades.

However, the protest by the women snowballed into a full-blown crisis following the arrest of Hon David Obuma, who is laying claim to the throne and who is being fingered as being behind the protest by the women.

His arrest was said to have sparked cases of arson as houses of prominent figures in the community were being targeted. 

The governor, Senator Douye Diri, said in a terse statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, that the curfew takes effect immediately.

Alabrah stated that Senator Diri took the action after receiving briefings from security commanders on the “state of security in the community where some unscrupulous elements had barricaded roads into and within the clan, making bonfires.’’

He noted that the Bayelsa governor has also directed security operatives to ensure that law and order, peace and security were restored in the community.