The ongoing feud between the Presidency and the Rivers State Governor took a new turn as the Chairman of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum, Rotimi Amaechi, hosted former Petroleum minister, Professor Tam David-West.
The governor said that the people of Rivers State both home and in the diaspora were preparing to march in order to protest the breakdown of law and order in the State due to manouverings by the Federal Government involving the federal police in Rivers state.
Amaechi said, “Prof., let me mention to you some of the challenges we are facing in Rivers State now. I will give you snippets of the letter I am trying to send to the President. Somebody at the top changed our Commissioner of Police and brought a man that when we finish Security Council meeting, he goes to report who said what and we are unable to hold any Security Council meeting anymore because of that. Prof., insecurity is threatening to come back, kidnapping is on the rise; armed robbery is on the rise because they have hijacked the security of the state.
“The commissioner of police reports to them in Abuja directly. He doesn’t report to the governor, he has nothing to do with the government, he takes away securitymen from commissioners and posts securitymen to the chairman of Port Harcourt Club. Port Harcourt Club is a social gathering, it is somewhere behind us here. So, we have that problem and we believe that we should begin to address it. Prof., if we need to march on the streets, we will call you to come and join us. We are preparing to march on the streets, if this anomaly continues.
“There are other people who have agreed to join us from outside Nigeria and from outside Rivers State but we want to give peace a chance to let the Federal Government know that we are tired of tyranny and impunity. We want the Federal Government to remember that the reason for which the Federal Government did not support state police is because they say the governors will mismanage state police. Then the federal police should not be mismanaged against us because the federal police is an institution for all Nigerians. I don’t want to go into details because we are still hoping that they will see reason,” he said.
Speaking on the imposter, Jonah Jang, Amaechi said, “Yesterday, my friend and brother, the Governor of Plateau State, convened a meeting of some governors. To prove that we won the election, only 16 governors went and he has never held a meeting where they are more than 16 governors. We shall very soon call our own meeting because we have been trying hard to talk to them and talk to everybody for them to see reason why we need to be together and respect democracy. Their non-acceptance of the will of the governors is undemocratic. They should not have put themselves forward for election because if you don’t accept results when you don’t win, then you are not democratic. Anybody who recognises my brother Jang (as NGF chairman) is also undemocratic because even that person may not accept any election result that does not favour him. Let the will of the people be expressed and let us respect the sanctity of their decision.”
In response Prof David-West said he knew the governor was going through hard times, but that he would prevail in the end.
He said, “We are going through very strange times in Nigeria, stranger still that 16 is now greater than 19 (referring to NGF election outcome). Our governor is going through very difficult times. Fortunately, he has the stamina and the strength, the fortitude to bear.”