…They’re drowning people looking for for a straw to clutch – Commissioner
Former local government chairmen in Rivers State loyal to former governor and FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, on Wednesday accused Governor Siminalayi Fubara of orchestrating the Tuesday attack by hunger protesters on Wike’s Port Harcourt residence.
The ex-chairmen warned that Fubara does not have a monopoly of violence and threatened to mobilize their supporters to launch a retaliatory attack on Fubara’s properties.
In the midst of the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest, demonstrators had marched to Wike’s house along Ada George Road in Port Harcourt, chanting war songs and hurling unprintable insults at the former governor. The situation was contained only by the vigilance of police officers who prevented the protesters from storming the mansion.
Speaking on Wednesday under the aegis of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Rivers State chapter, the chairmen—who were elected during Wike’s tenure as Rivers State governor—accused the incumbent Governor Fubara of sponsoring the ruffians who targeted Wike’s residence.
A former Chairman of Emuoha Local Government Area, Dr. Chidi Lloyd, stated, “We are aware that he (Fubara) directed the protesters to go to the residence of the minister. We will also organize our people and go to Forces Avenue where he is building on a 32-plot of land. Enough is enough. Fubara does not have the capacity to cow anybody here. He knows it, and we know his properties and those of his cronies.
“All they have achieved has been mountainous looting of Rivers funds. So, he should be very careful. He wants to incite ethnic bigotry here. If what happened yesterday at Ada George repeats itself, Fubara will not even be here to govern the state. We will not allow him to destroy all that we have achieved in this state just because he knows nothing about leadership. The protesters should gather at the government house and ask him what he has done with the N238bn he collected between May and June.”
In a swift response, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, dismissed the former chairmen’s accusations, likening them to “broken records.”
“If you ask me, they have finished their tenure and have gone by our own law. So, what they are doing is meddling in what does not concern them. They are like ordinary citizens,” Johnson said.
Commenting on the protest, he added, “If there was anything I saw along Ada George Road yesterday (Tuesday), I saw protesters who walked past the house of the FCT Minister and I saw a full presence of policemen. So, I don’t know what they are talking about. They are drowning people looking for where to clutch a straw. But if you ask me truly, the information I have is that they have been holding meetings. The one they held today is just the open one.
“They have been holding meetings sponsored by former Ohio-Akpor Local Government Chairmen, where they were charged to do everything to turn the protest into something that will culminate in a state of emergency. But all those attempts are the machinations of the wicked. The Bible has said that He disappointed the devices of the enemy so that they would not practice their enterprise. What they are doing is like the last kick of a dying horse. They are already gone, and the court has pronounced them as such.”
