For his decision to support the Governor Rotimi Amaechi-faction of the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), a commissioner has received phone calls from an ex-militant leader who threatened his life.
In an escalation of the months-old political crisis in the state, the commissioner had been among the 18 commissioners and four senior party officials expelled by the Chief Felix Obuah-led faction of the party, who had previously asked the commissioners to appear before the Performance and Evaluation Committee of the party to give account of their stewardship.
The suspension had been meant to prevent the affected members from taking part in yesterday’s special convention of the party. In their response to the decision by the state executive council of the party, stakeholders in the state comprising of all the National Assembly members, two senators, 23 local government chairmen and all the commissioners, reaffirmed their loyalty to the governor by announcing the boycott of the Abuja convention.
The party had alleged that some commissioners did appear before the committee while others made representations by proxy to the committee, a situation that sparked off argument in some quarters that some of the serving commissioners in Amaechi’s cabinet may not be “100 percent loyal” after all.
No sooner the names of the expelled members of the party were made, those whose names were not among the list of those expelled went to the media, denying ever appearing or represented before the committee.
It was gathered that it was at this point that the ex-militant general from the state was said to have called one of the commissioners (names withheld), warning him of the danger of not supporting the Obuah-led PDP.
A source said: “They called him and threatened his life if he does not support the factional PDP led by Felix Obuah. I am so surprised that this whole crisis could deteriorate to this level where human life will now become a threat.
“Amaechi is the leader of PDP in Rivers State just as President Goodluck Jonathan is the leader of the party in Nigeria. Besides that, people should have their choice of who they should support and that should not call for a threat by anybody over the life of another.
“So as a leader of the party in the state, how will anybody expect Amaechi’s supporters to be happy with his suspension by the party? They did not even stop at that, they went as far as expelling his commissioners and other key officers. This is one fight taken too far.
“What we are all saying is that Amaechi’s loyalists and millions of Nigerians are in support of him. His achievement in the state is phenomenal. If the party cannot respect the governor, can’t they appreciate the works he has done so far?”
It will be recalled that, few months ago, over 4,000 ex-militants staged a street protest in Port Harcourt, calling for the removal of Amaechi as governor.
The protest match, which started from the popular Isaac Boro recreational park in Mile One, was led by former militant leaders who had been chased out of the city by the Amaechi government after an unfortunate era of blood bath in the state in the administration of former governor, Peter Odili.
It was also gathered that some of the ex-militants are not in any way happy with the Amaechi government. It is not therefore a surprise that threat calls are now becoming the order of the day to settle some political scores in the state.