The unfolding political drama in Rivers State got messier, on Thursday, as the State’s Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Tony Okocha, dared Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
The development comes barely 24 hours after the governor vowed to surprise those who dare him.
Speaking when he received members of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) from the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers on a solidarity visit to Government House, Port Harcourt on Wednesday, Fubara said his decision to implement the presidential peace pact should not be misconstrued as a sign of weakness.
“Let me say it here for record purposes: What is happening here in our dear State is somebody who has respect for an elder. Mr. President invited all the parties to Abuja, and came out with a resolution that we should go and implement. That resolution, I am implementing it. It is not a constitutional implementation. It is a political solution to a problem.”
“And I am doing it because of the respect I have for Mr President. But, let me say it here, if that action that I have accepted to take would be seen as a weakness, I will surprise them. I want this message to go to them,” he had said.
But at a press conference on Thursday, Okocha accused Fubara of plotting illegality, vowing that the people of the state would resist his moves.
Okocha alleged that the governor was planning to engage some judges in the state to obtain an interim order to announce as illegal, the Rivers State House of Assembly as constituted and led by Hon. Martin Amaehwule.
He also claimed that the governor wants to leverage on the interim order in other to appoint caretaker committee of chairmen of the local government areas.
“But let me put it clearly here that we will stoutly, vehemently oppose such negative subterranean moves by a man who ought to protect the dignity and integrity of a state called Rivers State. Rivers State cannot be turned to a pariah because of cluelessness of one person. Rivers State is a state to be reckoned with in the comity of nations, highly respected and regarded,”
“See how dangerously we have fallen because we have a Governor that does not understand his left from his right. So we to put out this clearly to Nigerians and to Rivers people that we will stoutly disobey that. The gift according to Frantz Fanon, that I like so much, the gift to an intransigence government is civil disobedience. If the Government of Siminalayi Fubara tends towards intransigence then he will meet with civil disobedience. It is just natural,” he had stated.
