Rivers People Reject Calls For State Of Emergency

Residents of Rivers State across various strata have rejected calls for a state of emergency to be declared in the state because of the political crisis between the camps of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
It would be recalled that Chief Tony Okocha, the Acting State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, had called for the declaration of a state of emergency in the state because of fears that the supporters of the governor and the FCT Minister could clash and make the state ungovernable.
Okocha’s call came as the former Chairmen of the 23 local governments vowed not to vacate office even as their three-year tenures expired on June 17 at a time when supporters of the governor also threatened to evict the former chairmen and their councillors out of the local government offices by force.
On the 17th June, when the tenure of the former local government chairmen elapsed supporters of Governor Fubara besieged the councils in droves and chased away the former LG chairmen before taking full possession of the councils.
However, the Nigeria Police Force moved in to barricade the council secretariats, under the guise of having instructions from the Inspector-General of Police to safeguard the council secretariats until the political crisis in the state was resolved.
The police claimed that they were doing this to forestall crisis erupting between supporters of Governor Fubara and supporters of Wike.
However in the process of occupying the council secretariats, a police inspector and a vigilance security personnel were killed at Omuma LGA.
Consequently, the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and civil society groups threatened to embark on a peaceful demonstration. But they called it off after intelligence reports forecast that it could be hijacked and turned into a clash between supporters of Governor Fubara and those of the FCT Minister.
But later on, supporters of Wike and the former local government chairmen with a backup by the police carried out coordinated demonstrations simultaneously in the 23 local government areas. They said the demonstrations were in support of the police takeover of the local government secretariats.
The demonstration took a tragic turn however when a dynamite exploded in the hands of one of the demonstrators in Port Harcourt, causing severe injuries on his person.
Through intelligence report, the culprit/victim, One Josiah Preye was tracked and apprehended by the state government while on admission at Rivers State University Teaching Hospital.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Adaeze Oreh, who confirmed the discovery and arrest of the culprit said the intention of the demonstrators was to drop the bomb on the prestigious Hotel Presidential and cause a panic that would have thrown the state into anarchy.
Port Harcourt residents were furious at the pro-Wike supporters and Chief Okocha for trying to foment the crisis and hatching plans to escalate the crisis.
However, the people interviewed in the state were unanimous in totally rejecting the calls for a state of emergency. The peace that has however returned to the streets after last week’s demonstrations is still fragile as the battle lines have been extended to the law courts, which are still trying the main contentions between the feuding factions, among which are the tenures of the former local government chairmen and the determination of the loss or otherwise of the seats of the 27 legislators who defected from the PDP to APC.
Meanwhile the new caretaker committees appointed by the Governor Fubara to run the councils have been operating from locations other than the local government secretariats.