More support for the declaration of a state of emergency has grown in Rivers State.
The call was launched last week by All Progressive Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate Tonye Cole, an architect and business magnate.
He had cited violent riots at campaign rallies, especially the alleged attack on the APC rally in Diobu, Port Harcourt with suspected explosives.
Another APC chief, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, a media strategist and publicist, has added to his push against the Rivers government over the state governor’s response to Cole’s call.
Eze in a statement in Port Harcourt said Cole was correct in his claims, saying the political atmosphere in the state is tense and pregnant.
Another APC chief, Sogbeye Eli, spokesman for the Cole Campaign Council recalled that the Rivers APC gubernatorial campaign rally grounds in the Port Harcourt city local government area were attacked with improvised explosive devices. (IED) and sporadic gunfire, a development he said the Police Commissioner denied before ordering an investigation. “No report of the investigation is being made public and no arrests have been made to date.”
Eli named another disruption to his Andoni rally in Asarama, which he said was also reported without a single arrest.
“The campaign activities of Accord gubernatorial candidates Dumo Lulu-Briggs and Social Democratic Party Magnus Abe have come under similar unprovoked attacks in Etche, Oyigbo, Port Harcourt, Tai and Ahoada local council areas. West for the last two years. days without any deterrent measure by the State Police Command”.
He has intensified calls for the transfer of the police commissioner.
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In his message supporting the call for a state of emergency, Eze, a former national publicity secretary for the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP), said the PDP administration in Rivers State is full of men who can’t handle the situation. in deterioration.
Eze said that widespread insecurity, financial sleaze, blatant corruption and the deplorable state of public infrastructure in health, education and other critical sectors, along with the shameful status of Rivers State as the capital of poverty and unemployment in Nigeria, demand rapid intervention, as only emergency rule can be allowed, given the exigency of time.
Rivers State Information and Communications Commissioner Chris Finebone condemned the call, but Eze said the Commissioner veered off topic and embarked on an unsuccessful journey; digging up the most unseemly and demeaning adjectives from his grammar files to describe former Governor Chibuike Amaechi and Rivers APC gubernatorial candidate (Tonye Cole).
Saying the government should have addressed the points raised in the call for a state of emergency, Eze regretted that Finebone resorted to personal attacks, accusing Rivers APC gubernatorial candidate of colluding with Amaechi to transfer state assets to Sahara Energy. .
He recalled that the same Finebone an Amaechi ally not long ago berated Wike on the same accusation of illegal sale of state assets and siphoning of profits.
Eze wondered what Finebone must have done to change his position on Cole and Amaechi’s innocence to now accuse them on Wike’s side.
Eze told the story of the sale and concession of state assets and where the money went. He mentioned officials who had explained that payments from the proceeds of the transactions were deposited into the Rivers State Energy Asset Sale Account with Access Bank, as well as the Rivers State Revenue Account at Zenith Bank. .
He also quoted them as saying: “The companies that were mispresented as fronts for the looting of funds were actually the ones that bought USD and made remittances of Naira equivalent to Rivers State Revenue account with Zenith Bank.”
Eze warned the governor and his henchmen to stop pestering Nigerians with distractions and face the reality that he only has a few months to vacate Rivers State Government House and prepare for what awaits him outside of government.
He noted that the people of Rivers would not vote to consolidate corruption, mismanagement, laziness, poverty, insecurity, unemployment, nepotism and arbitrariness, but would instead vote for Tonye Cole and other APC candidates to bring back to the state to the path of progress and even development.
Justifying the call for an emergency rule, Eze appealed to President Buhari to speed up action in that regard, emphasizing that the rule of law and democracy have been suppressed and those whom society considers guardians of the law have been influenced by the rule of law. money and become lawbreakers on the spot. the glow of the world, bowing to the whims and whims of Governor Wike, a bribery lord, and doing his bidding.
With the help of police, who he said have annexed the governor’s office, Eze said Wike has turned his misery into a daily distraction for other political parties in Rivers State. “He is kneeling on the neck of the opposition political parties in the state through hateful orders and bans that clearly contravene the provisions of the Election Act and, more particularly, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Eze said the state is run like a banana island with the governor flagrantly usurping federal laws and blatantly cracking down on perceived political opponents in pursuit of his selfish private revenge.
“To this day, Rivers State is sitting on a powder keg. The environment is pregnant and if the call for an emergency rule is not heeded, you can get rid of a crisis capable of culminating this box called Rivers, ”he said.
