The refusal of Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, to cooperate with the Panel set up by Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris to investigate the violence that marred the December 10 legislative rerun elections in the State has been described as a bad omen.
“This is a direct affront to Federal powers and should be swiftly met with appropriate response by those whose authority he is challenging so as not to embolden others to follow his dangerous example,” the State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said.
The party in a statement issued on Wednesday in Port Harcourt expressed dismay that Wike has the effrontery to set up a parallel Commission of Enquiry on the rerun elections. “By so doing, Wike has clearly crossed the line and should be put in his proper place by the Federal Government whose powers he is brazenly challenging,” Rivers APC said in the statement signed by the State Chairman, Chief (Dr.) Davies Ibiamu Ikanya.
The party alleged that Wike’s sole purpose in setting up the kangaroo commission is to ridicule APC leaders and makes nonsense of the efforts by the Police to probe and stop further killings in Rivers State. “It is laughable and a mockery of civilised procedure for Wike, whom everybody knows is the brain behind most of the killings and insecurity in Rivers State, to set up a judicial commission on the said killings instead of submitting himself to a Federal Panel set up by a neutral party,” the statement said.
Continuing, it said: “As much as we respect Hon. Justice Chinwendu Nwogu, we pray and hope that by accepting to chair this kangaroo commission, he will not end up allowing Wike to ridicule his hard-earned reputation. The truth is that, if the commission is to be taken serious, it should indict both Wike and the State PDP Chairman, Bro. Felix Obuah, for their belligerent acts that fueled violence during the rerun polls.
We wish to caution all and sundry that Wike’s recent boast that no force even God can remove him from office shouldn’t be taken on its face value as this is one of his strategies to shout of an attack and later embark upon another act of hooliganism and mayhem in Rivers State knowing very well that nobody or agency can call him to order. He has started his plot against the Ogonis even after the rerun election was successful won by Senate Magnus Abe to represent South East Senatorial district in the Senate. With the killing of nine persons mostly of APC extraction in (Khana) Ogoni communities at the early hours of today by Wike’s hoodlums which they intend to replicate in other communities in the State and after to lay the blame on the Security Agencies in his current plot to discredit the security agencies, we wish to state once more that Wike has constituted himself not only as a nuisance but a serious threat to our nascent democracy and if we continue to treat his case with kid’s glove, we as a nation will have ourselves to be blamed.
“We will like to state that Wike’s unreasonable antagonism against the present Federal Government under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari for reasons best known to him, and for him to sponsor attacks against agencies of the Federal Government, is irresponsibility taken too far, which must be condemned by all and sundry. We have shouted ourselves hoarse that Wike is a threat to the current democracy in our country but it seems that nobody wants to take us serious. We wish to reiterate once again that the continued treatment of Wike’s excesses with kid gloves is a bad omen which should be decisively checked before it plunges this country into avoidable chaos.”
Rivers APC declared that Wike must submit himself to the Police Probe Panel to throw more light on the audio tape in which he was heard threatening to kill INEC officials, as well as sponsorship of various acts of violence in the State.
