Rivers State at ‘war’ as APC calls for state of emergency

…Police seal all LGA secretariats

Rivers State is at war, so says Tony Okocha, the caretaker committee chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), who has called for a state of emergency declaration.

Okocha spoke at a press briefing on Wednesday where he accused Siminalyi Fubara, the state governor, of being the architect of the crisis.

Okocha said the war is not just looming but is already on hand. He said young men with guns from the creeks have entered Port Harcourt and that there is a full threat.

Read also: Rivers Crisis: Council tenure expiration: Police officer, one other killed

The caretaker chairman said he too noticed strange movements at a hospital where he said he went to take treatment, and that security reports getting to him showed black vehicles were moving about in his area. “I had to escape from the hospital”.

Okocha however said a hero like him would not run away from the battlefield, saying he would stand to do his work.

Accusing Fubara of being the cause of the troubles, Okocha said by refusing to conduct local council elections before now, it has created a vacuum and invited mayhem. He said no local council chairman was unwilling to vacate office but that the failure to conduct the elections made the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) domesticate a national law that empowered the National Assembly to extend the tenure of Mr President for an initial six months.

Okocha, who had earlier called for the impeachment of the governor, said the stage of the crisis is advanced and that only a state of emergency would solve the problem.

He wondered why the governor did not want to conduct elections using the political crisis as an excuse whereas, as he put it, the same governor and his people went around the state for Thanksgiving without trouble.

He wondered why the governor was in a hurry to install new caretaker committees in the 23 LGAs whereas the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal were set to make declarations on such matters. “Maybe he wants the expected decisions to be rendered useless.”

Okocha also refuted claims by former governor and former minister of transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, that 84% of Nigerians do not like the Bola Ahmed Tinubu government.

Okocha said Amaechi must provide the statistics of the study that gave him such a result, or Nigerians must regard it as his personal opinion.

He said Rivers people and Nigerians stand solidly behind Tinubu and that an APC caucus meeting in Calabar just affirmed it, saying Tinubu was free to even contest the 2027 election.

Meanwhile, the Rivers State police command has made good its threat to seal all LGA secretariats in the state. A visit to the PH City Council showed policemen in fatigue blocking all access to the place. Vehicles turned back to seek alternative routes.