Rivers government clamps down on businesses of perceived political foes

Clampdown politics may have begun in Rivers State as power tussle resumes in the highest form following cracks within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state between the Governor Nyesom Wike camp and Atiku Abubakar camp, some affected members have alleged.

But Governor Wike in a swift response said it was not clampdown.

The public woke up Friday morning, August 19, 2022, to the news of shutdown of one business or the other belonging to Atiku men.

Trouble began days ago when Wike claimed that politicians including those in his party (PDP) were recruiting cultists and training them for the 2023 election. He threatened to demolish hotels and other centres found to do so.

Many feared that the same pattern used to clamp Dagogo Fubara, an Atiku man (member of the House of Reps), who wished to contest the governorship primaries of the PDP, was being re-invented.

Fubara spent over three months in detention without ever knowing when the primaries were held.

Now, as Wike and Atiku seemed to begin a fight within the PDP on the way to capturing power in 2023, Wike had vowed to teach his enemies a hot lesson, saying he would deliver all Rivers votes to whomever he wanted.

Lee Meaba, an Atiku man, had countered him, saying the Atiku camp was not fazed by such threats. The governor may have been enraged by such affront as he dissolved any board where Atiku henchmen held sway.

Every day, Wike finds excuse to berate the Atiku team members in Rivers State such as Auston Opara (one time deputy speaker of the House of Reps), Abiye Sekibo, Chinyere Igwe, Lee Maeba, and many more.

Now, today, those men woke up to find that their businesses had been shut down. The government house has not explained the reason, other than the previous threats of shutting down places where cultists are meeting, including a filling station.

It was gathered that the attacks was on business owners and destruction of properties at the popular Building Materials Market at the Kala area of Obio/Akpor LGA by men of the Taskforce set up by the Rivers State Government.

There was also the sealing up of three business premises (Priscy’s Lounge, Preray Hotel & Mega Tools Ltd.) within the Port Harcourt City LGA, and subsequent arrest of about 19 customers whose only crime was patronising these businesses by agents of the Rivers State Government, which observers have described as barbaric.

Igwe, who is being advised to stay away from Rivers State, told newsmen on phone that his workers were shocked at night when strange men backed by armed security ransacked his filling station.

He said he was lucky because the invaders could not find any drop of fuel hidden anywhere. They allegedly sealed up the place.

Reacting, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, speaking through the Acting Publicity Secretary, Darlington Nwauju, expressed alarm at the style of harming businesses as an act of regulation.

The statement drew attention of the State Government and its agents to the provisions of Chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which the party said allows for freedom to live and move freely in Rivers State. “Not even the President is empowered under our constitution to seal up people’s legitimate businesses for whatever reasons.

“Even if a business premises is reasonably suspected to be one that is used for illegitimate purposes, only a Court of law can pronounce the company or individual guilty. Nobody under the principle of fair hearing can one be a judge in his own matter (nemo judex in causa sua),” Nwauju said.