Rivers crisis: Political gladiators take battle to grassroots

Rivers crisis: Political gladiators take battle to grassroots

DENNIS NAKU writes on the fresh political crisis in Rivers State emanating from the tenure of local government chairmen and traces the beginning of the feud between godfather and godson

One thing in the minds of many keen watchers of political events in Rivers State is how the festering crisis between the state Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and his predecessor and estranged political godfather, Nyesom Wike will end. One question political observers will ask is who will laugh last?

Continuing, the INC boss, Prof. Okaba said, “The IG directive that the police should be there, maybe from one point of view, you could say that the police have no business barricading the place particularly now that the governor has put in place a caretaker committee, which, though not in the constitution, is almost a norm in Nigeria; other states have done the same thing as an interim measure before elections are conducted into councils.

“Again, this is why we have been talking about the independence of the police. The constitution says the governor is the Chief Security Officer of the place. The Commissioner of Police should have taken orders from the governor. Now he is taking orders from the IG which again defines the kind of democracy and separation of powers we operate in this country.

“So, in all, it is a misnomer, which is almost becoming a norm in the country we find ourselves in. I feel we should be very careful with what is going on.

“It is very provocative if not properly managed can lead to bloodshed and all of that, and those are the things I have warned against. So, it is now left for stakeholders at the state, and federal levels to sit down together and look for a way out of all of this mess. I call it a very messy situation,” he said, even as he called on the President to intervene in the crisis rocking the state.

On his part, the Chairman of the Rivers State Civil Society Organisation, Enefaa Georgewill, said the stance of the IG showed that “the police have already put themselves in the arena by trying to be an interpreter of court judgments.”

He said, “We would want to warn that the police shouldn’t create situations where civil organizations like ours and other interest groups would have to move into the streets to demand that the police remove themselves from the political arena of Rivers state and obey a subsisting court judgment and equally respect our constitution that says that every local government chairman is supposed to stay for three years. Anything outside this, we will be left with no choice than to begin to mobilise our affiliates and other interest groups and to move to the streets of Port Harcourt and Abuja.”

Similarly, the River State chapter of the National Union of Local Government Employees said it had issued a four-day ultimatum for the police to vacate the LGA secretariats, saying its members would be forced to take to the streets afterward.

The state NULGE President, Clifford Paul, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH on the telephone, said, “We have made a statement asking the Rivers State Police Command to reopen the gates for the workers because after the dissolution of the LG councils by the executive governor of the state, since then, all the gates of the 23 LG councils have been and there is no way my workers will be outside or will be absenting themselves from work.

“So, we are requesting that the needful has to be done. They should vacate the gates so that we can access our premises. We are giving them a four-day ultimatum, and after the four days, as a union, I will reserve that comment.”