The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, says he would re-impose lockdown beginning from January as the number of Coronavirus cases surge in the state.
He gave hint of imminent second phase of lockdown amid rising cases of Covid-19 during the thanksgiving church service in celebration of the 90th birthday of Mrs. Priscilla Nwanediye Mark, at the St. Martin’s Anglican Church, Omagwa in Ikwerre Local Government Area, yesterday.
Wike described as worrisome, the refusal of most churches and markets in the state to enforce compulsory wearing of facemasks in adherence to Covid-19 protocol.
He said the state government had initially relaxed the restriction on the number of persons who worship in churches, but with the second wave of Covid-19, he would by this week announce new stringent measures to check the spread of Covid-19 cases in the state.
The Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and the Niger Delta Dialogue (NDD) have rejected no fewer than 12 key provisions in the Petroleum Host and Impacted Communities Development Bill (PHICDB).
They warned that the key provisions in the bill must be redrafted, rephrased and restructured to accommodate the interests of the impoverished and neglected people of the oil and gas host and impacted communities in the Niger Delta, or the peace and appropriate development sought by the bill would elude both the region and the country as a whole.
The critical Niger Delta groups expressed their rejection of the vital provisions of the bill during the NDD’s Strategic Communication and Advocacy Training session for major stakeholders in PANDEF, NDD and the various Policy Advocacy Committees (PACs) in Port Harcourt, recently.