Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has told the Senate Committee on Privatization and Commercialization that last Tuesday’s detonation of an explosive device in front of the Hotel Presidential by one of the pro-Nyesom Wike protesters was targeted at the Senators.
Fubara who was speaking when members of the committee paid him a courtesy call at Government House, said the purpose was to impress on the Senators to support a call for the declaration of a state of emergency in the state.
He said he was not fighting anybody but only defending the State against predators, and those who felt that they own the lives of others.
The Governor explained that some youths were hired to engage in a protest to demand for extension of tenure of former local government chairmen who have served out their statutory three-year tenure.
He pointed out that no governor in Nigeria could stomach 10 percent of the insults he had received from the former local government chairmen, which he said he had ignored so as not to be distracted.
He said the attempt to elongate the tenure of local government chairmen and councilors in the state was unlawful. He said it was all done to massage the ego of just one man.
The Governor told members of the committee to factor in the interest of Rivers State as they recommend the privatisation and commercialisation of public companies, saying that when the state had stakes in such companies, it will be able to protect its assets and operations.
“I will also appeal to you that in this process of privatisation, anything that has to do with our own state here that needs to be privatised, the Rivers State Government will be interested. It is only when we own it that those assets can be protected,” he said.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, said they were in Rivers State to carry out oversight duties on some projects under their purview.
Kalu, who is representing Abia North, commended Governor Fubara for his love for peace and good governance.
