Tension In Rivers As June 17 Approaches

There is palpable tension in Rivers State as elected local government Chairmen and Councillors insist that they would not vacate office beyond the June 17, 2024 date when their current tenure expires.
The present crop of elected council chairmen and councillors whose tenures will expire on June 17th, have said they will not vacate their seats because a faction of the House of Assembly led by Hon. Martins Amaewhule had amended the Rivers State Local Government Law to extend their tenures by six months.
One of the council chairmen, Dr. Samuel Nwanosike of Ikwerre LGA, had said categorically, “We will not leave office on the 17th of June. Our tenures have been elongated by virtue of concrete legislations. It is only a mirage for people to think that we will vacate office on that date.”
But the state government, which is not working with the Amaewhule group of legislators, has said the tenure of the elected local government chairmen and councilors expires on June 17th.
Justice Charles Wali of the Rivers State High Court had recently given an order declaring that the 27 pro-Wike members of the House of Assembly led by Amaewhule should stop parading themselves as members of the House of Assembly. The order also invalidated all the laws made by them after their defection.
A prominent youth leader in the state, Chijioke Ihunwo, in concert with a wide range of PDP stakeholders accordingly counselled the 23 local government chairmen to toe the path of honour and leave as their tenures expire on June 17.
A wide range of Rivers stakeholders who were interviewed on the matter, stated that the 23 local government council chairmen should not take the peaceful nature of the average Rivers man for granted.
“Whether they like it or not they will vacate the office on or before the 17th June. Rivers people will not for an instant accept such rascality from them and will deal squarely with any recalcitrant local government chairman. Rivers people are aware that constitutionally, three years are allotted to local government chairmen as their tenure,” said one of the residents.
Respondents further said that Governor Siminalayi Fubara had been magnanimous enough to allow these local government chairmen to remain in office to the last day of their tenure and that it would be tantamount to playing with fire for them to claim that they will stay beyond their three years in office.
A cross section of Rivers youths interviewed over the matter insisted that it would amount to a joke taken too far for the local government chairmen to claim that they would stay six months after their tenure expires.
“We will not tolerate any vile imagination from these recalcitrant local government council chairmen. On the D-Day, We will smoke them out of office,” said Mr. Gomba Obele, a member of the PDP in Eleme Local Government Area.
Governor Fubara had recently hinted of plans by some unnamed unpatriotic elements to foment trouble in the state. Though he was not specific, he may have been referring to the council chairmen.
There have been speculations that the embattled council chairmen might employ the services of political thugs to perpetuate their stay in office.
A lot of residents of the state have expressed worry about what may happen if both parties maintain their hard line positions. They are praying that the state would not be plunged into anarchy going by the hard line stances of the two contending parties.
Despite the growing tension, many residents have expressed concern about the sudden silence of the former Governor Nyesom Wike’s camp to which the Amaewhule-led legislators belong.
The recent accolades poured on Wike by President Bola Tinubu during his one year in office celebration in Abuja could mean the minister of FCT might have the backing of the President to assert himself as the overlord in the politics of Rivers State.