The Rivers State Government has responded to a statement by the head of the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), in which he faulted the decision of the Supreme Court affirming the victory of the State Governor, Nyesom Wike, at the April 2015 polls.
Speaking at the palace of the Olu of Warri on Saturday, Sagay said: “The judgements are very perverse, particularly relating to Akwa Ibom and Rivers. Everybody knows that there were no elections in those two states.
“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.”
But in a swift response, the state government through the Commissioner for Information, Austin Tam-George, described the Professor of Constitutional Law as “one of the most opportunistic enablers of the corrupt regime of (immediate-past Governor) Mr Rotimi Amaechi”.
The statement read: “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.
“In a widely reported statement yesterday, Sagay launched a bitter and completely unwarranted attack on the justices of the Supreme Court, for affirming Barrister Nyesom Wike as the duly elected Governor of Rivers State.
“Prof. Sagay alleged, without any shred of proof, that “Everybody knows that people like Wike climbed into the governorship seat over dead bodies and over blood of human beings. There were no elections, they wrote the results; the evidence is there”.
“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. 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 the support of 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.
“We condemn this carefully orchestrated campaign of calumny launched by the APC and its cowardly surrogates against Nigeria’s justice system, which is the bedrock of our evolving constitutional democracy. 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.
“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.”