Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has vowed that those found culpable for the deaths of 10 people in Kula Community Akuku-Toru Local Government Area will face the full weight of the law.
Fubara made the assurance on Thursday while responding to a peaceful protest by Kula indigenes who marched to Government House Port Harcourt to demand justice for the deaths.
The governor represented by his Chief of Staff Sunny Ewule expressed sympathy for the bereaved families and assured the community that the state government would investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.
He appealed to protesters to remain calm and refrain from taking the law into their own hands assuring them that the government would pursue the matter until it identified those responsible and brought them to justice.
‘Anybody who is involved in this incident or found culpable for whatever happened will definitely pay for it according to the law. We are not going to sit by and allow Rivers indigenes to go through this type of unnecessary death’ he said.
Fubara described the loss of life as a serious matter stressing that his administration would not relent until the circumstances surrounding the incident were unravelled.
‘We want to sympathise with the Kula Community and the bereaved families’ he said.
Earlier the leader of the Kula delegation High Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe said the community visited Government House to formally report the incident and seek the governor’s intervention.
Sara-Igbe said the community could have retaliated but chose a peaceful approach by bringing its grievances to the government.
‘It is proper we inform him (Fubara) because we don’t want to take the law into our hands. We have the capacity to react but we don’t want to react’ he said.
The community’s appeal comes amid demands for accountability over the deaths with the state government assuring residents that anyone found responsible would be dealt with in accordance with the law.