Rivers Governor Siminalayi Fubara on Thursday commended the peaceful disposition of people who came out to participate in the protest against bad governance in the State.

Fubara spoke while addressing the protesters in front of Government House, Port Harcourt.

The Governor said he was happy that the protesters were peaceful while ventilating their anger over the economic situation in the country.

However, our correspondent reports that the protesters rejected the governor’s promise to give them money to buy ‘pure water’ and for transportation as they described the offer as embarrassing

The protesters had earlier marched from Pleasure park along Aba road and made a stop over at the Federal government Secretariat as well as GRA junction before arriving at Government’s House, accompanied by security operatives.

The protesters had as early as 9 am, began to gather at Pleasure Parka long Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway armed with placards and chanting slogans like ‘We are hungry,’ ‘President we are dying”

Some protesters were also seen in Eleme, in Eleme local government area in Rivers State as at 11:22 AM, August 1st, 2024, carrying placards

It was observed that there were no roadblocks in place and the traffic was free on the major roads.

The students of the University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT, did not participate in the protests as they were seen rushing to attend their lectures as the school is in session.

At the ever busy Rumuokoro market in Obio-Akpor local government area, businesses activities were in full swing, while some banks in Port Harcourt did not open due to the nationwide protest.

In addition to the protest, some banks had difficulty attending to customers due to poor network from telecom providers.

A top official of one of the banks said while staff have been instructed to come to work, they might not open to the public until they assess the situation.

More later