Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the response by the Rivers State Government to the wise counsel of the erstwhile Governor of Rivers State and incumbent Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to Governor Wike to sit-up or quit as Rivers State Governor if he finds it so difficult to secure the lives and property of people of Rivers State as lame, watery, despicable and deceptive.
Apart from running short of ideas on governance and inability to uphold his oath of office as the Governor of Rivers State to protect the lives and property of Nigerians and foreigners residing in Rivers State and with his dismal failure in this regard Wike is expected to resign honourably and save the State from further blood bath. Rivers State House of Assembly that would have saved Rivers State from the embarrassment that Wike has constituted himself into by impeaching him summarily lacks initiative and powers to call him to order as the members can only sit when the Governor requests them to sit.
Rivers APC made these remarks in a press statement approved by the Rivers State APC Chairman, Chief (Dr) Davies Ibiamu Ikanya and circulated on Thursday by his Media Chief, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze and further described as heinous, evil, satanic and unacceptable the New Year massacre of over 21 sons and daughters of Rivers State at Omoku who have gone to church to worship and thank God for sparing their lives in the year 2017 only for them to be killed by forces created and well known to the Government of Rivers State.
Drawing inspiration from late Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia truism, “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most that has made it possible for evil to triumph.” The Rivers APC Chairman reiterated that the leadership of APC will not be deterred to speak up not minding that Governor Wike apart from constituting himself as a security threat to every Rivers State person, mismanagement of over monthly 2billion Naira Security vote and for turning Rivers State into Rivers of Blood is capable of plunging Rivers State into a worse situation if not called to order.
In this regard, we wish to state unambiguously that the continued killing and decimation of hundreds of Rivers State people since Chief Nyesom Wike assumed office as the Governor of Rivers State on 29th May, 2015 and his inability to curtail the carnage is not only callous, condemnable, wicked but unacceptable.
The party further stated that it is on record that Wike’s ambition created the current insecurity situation in Rivers State through his support and sponsorship of cultism and militancy in Niger Delta which engineered the killings of hundreds of APC supporters till date just because he wants to win election and perpetuate himself as the Governor and power base of Niger Delta politics forgotten that it is God that gives power to whomever he wants.
Rivers State was plunged into this untoward state when Wike formed the deadly and infamous Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI) and used the group to molest some Northern Governors that came to Rivers State in 2014 to sympathise with the then Governor of Rivers State, Amaechi over his ordeals in the hands of Wike and Dr Goodluck Jonathan. As if this was not enough, he used this group to beat up, molest and dislodge over 11 key Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members that wanted to contest the 2015 governorship election under the PDP platform at the party’s National Secretariat at Abuja.
Report has it that after considering that GDI may have outlived its usefulness, while serving as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Wike paid visits to some notable former war lords from the Niger Delta, soliciting their support for his gubernatorial ambition. In this regard, it was reported that he donated his six months’ salary to Tompolo Foundation. Stanley Azuakola of TheScoop, in his report entitled, Nyesom Wike donates 6 months’ salary to ex-militant Tompolo Foundation stated: “There are reports that the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, who is currently involved in a bitter struggle with the current Rivers Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has donated his salary for the next six months, which amounts to about N11.742 million, to the Chief Tompolo Foundation.”Link:http://www.
An online media platform, Newsdiaryonline, which also reported the donation and its purpose said: ‘The donation by the Minister is seen as part of covert moves to consolidate plans to work with Mr Tompolo to disrupt the peace in his home state, Rivers State. This is seen as part of the plot to oust the incumbent Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who is seen to have parted ways with President Goodluck Jonathan. Reports indicate that Mr Wike has boasted that he will deploy his wide contacts within the Judiciary to recruit everyone necessary to ensure he has his way in Rivers State. However, reliable sources reveal that residents of the state have sighted a gradual resurgence of ex-militant groups that had hitherto taken flight from the state due to the tough stance of the Amaechi-led administration on militant activities. Most of these militants had fled the state for more accommodating havens like Bayelsa and Akwa-Ibom states and Abuja in the face of the onslaught on criminal activities by the Rivers State Government under Amaechi. With the frosty relationship between the governor and Presidency, and with the controversial complacent role of the State Commissioner of Police, these ex-militants are now finding their ways back to the state.
‘Some residents who prefer to remain anonymous have expressed concern that the sudden return of these ex-militants to the state hold very ominous signs for the state and that their intentions cannot be good.’ This fear is now loudly very imminent in Rivers State today, as residents now sleep with two eyes wide open.
That ominous signs as postulated above is the result of the endless bloodbath in Rivers State today orchestrated by the Wike’s government.
In another development, according to TheScoop publication of January 20, 2014 titled Amaechi has not started crying yet – boasts Nyesom Wike; Segun Odeleye reported that Wike was quoted as saying: ‘We are free of any arrest; no police will arrest any member of GDI or interrupt their activities or gathering in this state. Don’t forget, it is Amaechi who was ordering police to arrest GDI members anywhere they are gathering. Now he is the one crying over arrest and disruption of APC gathering in the state. He has not started crying: the police will continue to chase them until they learn how to follow the due process before hosting any meeting or rally. Rivers State is for PDP. The best thing for Governor Amaechi is to resign and have peace, because as long he remains the governor, he will never have peace.’ Link:http://www.thescoopng.
In another development, a versatile public commentator, Uche Igwe, a doctoral research fellow at Sussex Centre for the Study of Corruption, University of Sussex, described Wike as ‘a tough and undiplomatic man with a thug-minded determination and a deep-pocket that thrives in a policy of vindictiveness. ’Known as Eze Gburugburu by his admirers, a brutal schemer who maximised his position as Chief of Staff in Brick House to stockpile enormous financial resources for himself. The bulky framed politician is also someone who understands and believes in the power of money and readily deploys it as a political tool to achieve helpful and, most times, unhelpful political ends. Another former loyalist described him as ‘a merciless politician with a limitless capacity for mischief.’
Sam Nda-Isaiah, Publisher of Leadership Newspaper, in his reaction published by TheScoop of August 12, 2013 titled , “Why does the President enjoy the company of gangsters? stated: ‘The Minister of State for Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, who is at the centre of the crisis in Rivers State with the clear support of the President, Goodluck Jonathan, and the co-president, Patience Jonathan, now operates above the law in the state. To worsen the joke, he has even declared for the governorship of the state. It is very hard to believe that a serving minister would make that kind of statement and still be kept in the cabinet by the President. But that has been our lot since Jonathan became President.’ Link:http://www.thescoopng.
Before and during the March/April 2015 General Elections in Rivers State, it was reported that about 100 members of All Progressives Congress (APC) were slaughtered, with their local secretariats at Andoni and Okirika bombed. The live telecast by Channels TV during the shootings on the APC Rally at Okirika should be very visible in the minds of Nigerians.
During the 2016 rerun elections of April 2016, the APC’s National Working Committee, in a press statement, noted: “APC members in Rivers State are fast becoming [an] endangered species.” That was after scores of members were killed in recent weeks. The committee released a list of 32 party members it claimed had been killed by a variety of methods: “several were beheaded, others clubbed to death and one man burned alive.”
Till date, under the watch of Governor Wike, over 500 Rivers State citizens have been killed.
Kennedy Friday, a social commentator captured the present situation in Rivers State thus: “They were killed and beheaded in Ula-Upata community in Ahoada East Local Government Area. After that, their corpses were set ablaze! In this 21st century, this bestiality happens every day in parts of Rivers State, almost unchallenged. Insecurity is at its most rampaging level. Oh God, what is happening to Rivers State? We have this very dire challenge and people look the other way and pretend that all is well. This barbarity happens every day in one part of the state or the other. When will these killings stop?”
In the words of Ibrahim Modibbo, a social commentator based in Abuja: “Not even under the evil and satanic regimes of Mobutu Sese Seko, Emperor Fidel Bokassa or legendary Idi Amin of Uganda did we see such a fascist regime that displays optimum barbarism and primitive parochialism as in Rivers. The state is currently buckling under the full weight of a heartlessly ravenous political brigand, where life has lost its meaning and value. A cabal that swims in obscene opulence has made political power to be so critical to its survival that any opposition that stands on its way, even if it’s a fly, must be crushed with a sledge hammer. I am, therefore, not surprised that opponents are now hunted like a game: with many beheaded, clubbed to death or buried alive like chickens.”
Jimitota Onoyume, Vanguard Newspaper Correspondent, reported on May 17, 2016, how 5 cops, 6 civilians were butchered in Rivers. According to him, “Mortal fear has seized the people of Rivers State since last week when armed marauders murdered five police officers, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Muhammadu Halidu, and six civilians at Okobe in Ahoada West Local Government Area. The rampaging gunmen laid ambush for the police officers, attached to the 30 Mobile Police Force, code-named 30 MPF, Bayelsa State, on their way back from a national assignment in Yobe State and stole their rifles, after snuffing the life out of them.”
With all these facts, can anybody dispute why Rivers State is today the Rivers of blood under the watch of Wike?
Wike should stop playing politics with the lives of Rivers State people and tell Nigerians where these militants he empowered are and what some of them are still doing in his government.
Finally, we plead with Wike to remember God and save Rivers State from this mess by dislodging some of these militants and avoid using them to prosecute what he terms “2019 final battle”
Politics should not be war but means of offering oneself for services to humanity the party concluded.
As we condole the latest victims’ families, we urge the security agencies to fish out those culpable in this heinous crime and let the full wrath of the law be visited on them accordingly.
May God grant their souls eternal rest and grant fortitude to all the families of the bereaved to bear this unwarranted tragedy.
