The Rivers State government has lashed out at the chairman of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption, Itse Sagay, for his criticism of the recent Supreme Court judgment upholding the election of Governor Nyesom Wike.
In a statement Sunday, the state government said Mr. Sagay, a professor of Law, launched a “bitter and completely unwarranted attack” on Supreme Court justices in the wake of the apex court’s decision.
“Prof Itse Sagay, one of the most opportunistic enablers of the corrupt regime of Mr. Rotimi Amaechi in Rivers State, seems to have finally found the courage to step out of his closet,” the Rivers State government said in the statement issued by Austin Tam-George, Commissioner for Information and Communication.
Speaking to journalists in Warri, on Saturday, Mr. Sagay had described the Supreme Court’s decisions in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States as “very perverse.”
“Everybody knows that people like Wike climbed into the governorship seat (over) dead bodies and over bloods of human beings. There were no elections, they wrote the results, the evidence is there,” Mr. Sagay had said.
But in its swift reaction, the Rivers State government said Mr. Sagay does not have any proof to back his claims.
“For a trained lawyer, Prof Sagay has obviously lost his sense of irony. He criticizes the legally sound and unanimous judgement of the Supreme Court, by resorting to the silly and unsubstantiated hearsay mindlessly peddled by the APC,” the government said.
“In the twilight of an unremarkable career, is Prof Sagay seeking to be the dubious originator of the sick jurisprudence of “Everybody Knows”, even without evidence?
“Is the Supreme Court no longer supreme in its judgements? Why is Sagay re-litigating a settled matter in the streets in such a disgraceful manner?
“Prof Itse Sagay may wish to re-read the history of the people of Rivers State. We never give up our sovereignty.”
The state government condemned the “carefully orchestrated campaign of calumny” which it said was launched by the All Progressives Congress, the main opposition party in the state.
“Working with other Nigerians and our sister states in the Niger Delta region, the government and people of Rivers State will continue to defeat the dark political fundamentalism of the APC,” the statement further said.
“We call on the international community to restrain the All Progressives Congress from its desperate attempts to politically dominate our people and plunder the resources of our land.”
