All is not okay as the disagreement between Rivers Governor Rotimi Amaechi and State Police Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu continues with the former challenging the latter to shoot him if he so desires.
Amaechi’s challenge came in the wake of allegations by local government chairmen of Ahoada East-West, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni and Abua/Odual that the police stopped their people from paying solidarity visits to Amaechi at the Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Recently, Amaechi accused the police chief of compromising the state’s security by allegedly leaking secrets to outsiders.
However in reply, Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu described the governor as a tyrant, who lacked respect for constituted authority.
The governor, who made the statement in Port Harcourt when he hosted some supporters, led by Senator Wilson Ake from Orashi zone, vowed to defy the ‘no-rally order’ made by the police.
Amaechi said while receiving Orashi people: “You (people of Orashi region of Rivers State) are by far stronger than me. I got a report Monday, very late at night that police planned to stop you. You should have recorded them, so that we can show to the world, how much a tyrant the commissioner of police is.
“Let us assume you are coming to protest; the commissioner of police cannot say he banned protest, when it is part of your fundamental human rights, which are in the constitution. His personal order is now superior to the Constitution.
“We have been suffering. We are now in a police state in Rivers state. If they blocked the entire Orashi region, and not allowing more than a million persons, from Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Abua/Odual, Ahoada East and Ahoada West LGAs. All policemen in Rivers State put together are not more than 17,000. With their guns, they tried to stop you. What you showed them is called people’s power.
“That you came out, despite the fact that the police blocked all the roads, looking for people in buses and stopping them from driving out. That you still passed that road and came here, you are stronger than me. You are more courageous than me.
“Part of the fight we are getting now is because of our desire to protect our oil resources. There are politicians who have played politics with us. In the past eight years, they have not been part of government and poverty has set in.
“The danger in letting them to take power is that for four years, they will not be able to do anything, because for eight years, they have got nothing. By the time they finish chopping and remember that you are alive, it will be four years. They have been out for eight years and they cannot wait to come in. Promise me, we will stop them.
“They can bring 50 commissioners of police. They can bring 50 Mbus. Mbu can live in their house. Just promise me that the people’s power will defeat them the way you defeated them this Monday morning. It does not matter, how much they want to come in. Only the people can defeat them.
“They have not taken your (Orashi) oil wells yet. They have taken oil wells from Etche people. They have taken from Kalabari people. They have taken from the Andoni. There is a claim by our sister state in Egbema and we also have boundary with Delta state. How do we know they will not claim from the Delta area?
“How do we know that if we close our eyes, the ones they are claiming in Egbema, they will not take them from us? You can never tell, how we will be losing our oil wells everyday.
“If I speak, they will say we are against government. Should I sleep as governor of Rivers State and be watching them?
“Orashi region, for now, is one of the highest producers of crude oil in Nigeria and we ask the Federal Government to do something around there. What have they done? That is our argument.
But the Rivers police, in reaction denied stopping people from paying solidarity visit to the governor.
Spokesperson Mrs. Angela Agabe, said the allegation that supporters of the governor were barred from entering Port Harcourt, was incorrect.
She dismissed the allegations by the state government and some council chairmen that policemen stopped indigenes of four local government areas from paying solidarity visit to Amaechi.
“After God, you (people of Orashi region) are the next set of people that came out to support me, including your son, Dr. Peter Odili.
“There is no personal quarrel between me and anybody. It is the quarrel between Rivers State and the rest. We just have to defend our rights.
“We have a right to be Nigerians and Nigeria has an obligation to make us to be responsible citizens of Nigeria. We will forever be Nigerians. We will go nowhere else, because we believe in Nigeria. Nigeria must make us happy too. So that we can say to the world, ‘we are proud Nigerians’.
“My brother, Chibudom Nwuche (former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives), said we are not running an inclusive government. My brother, the Governor of Ekiti State (Dr. Kayode Fayemi) told me that they call it stomach infrastructure.
“Part of the problems we are having is that our brothers, who have gathered in Abuja, have been hijacked by those who are not from Rivers state, to cause confusion in Rivers state.
“We are trying to complete the road to Nwuche’s village and we must complete it. If we have done that, what else is inclusive? What they mean by inclusion is stomach.
“Governors in this country have two choices to make. You either stand by the people or stand against the people. How do you stand by the people? Many people have been here and we have been hungry, in the midst of plenty. We have not had infrastructure. No employment. I am not saying it has improved, but we are moving towards improvement.
“I will not stand against you, just because I want to share the money. Everybody should read history. Once you leave office, all those who shared money with you, will forget you.
“You will be so lonely in your house. You will call one of them, I have not seen you for some time. Your Excellency, I am a bit busy. I will see you next week. Next week, he will not even come.
“If you stand with the people and respond to their yearnings for development, when you walk the street, you will see them behind you. We must stand together and resist them. The era of rigging must stop now.
“Why politicians do not care about you is because votes do not count. If they know that if you do not perform, you will not win, then they will be responsible.
“Nwuche said we are not performing. Ask him, when you were deputy speaker, what did you do? Let him not do it in Ahoada, let him do it in Ochigba (his village). As a speaker, I can show you the people I trained in the university.
“I can show you one person, as a speaker, I took overseas to study in the university and he is back. He is working now. Let him (Nwuche) not say you are comparing because you are a governor. When he was deputy speaker, I was speaker. I can show you the people I paid their fees in the university.
“If you want to be included in government, bring the ideas for development. Sit me down and criticise me for not developing your area. Tell me I am developing my village more than the other areas. Put facts. Let us argue. Let him (Nwuche) come for election.
“The fact remains simply that once the governor chooses to be on the side of the people, he must know that the rich people will come against him. Because the elite will come and ask you, since we put you there, what about the outcome. I assure you and our people that I will continue to stand by you.
“We are looking for a date we will demonstrate against what the Federal Government and the commissioner of police are doing in Rivers state. We have told our chiefs to get ready. Once we get a date, once we get people from overseas and Nigeria that will join us, we will give you the date. I have told the commissioner of police to be ready to shoot me. I will be in front.
“I will not sit here (Government House) and wait for you to march here and give me letter. Instead, we will put SSG here.
“Then, I will march in with the people. We will give SSG letter to give the Federal Government. So, that if they want to shoot me, they can shoot me, because we have the right to express our views.
“You have the right to criticise me. There is nobody that is a perfect man in the world. When you criticise me, my own job is to sit down and listen. If you are not talking from the stomach infrastructure, you must be making sense.
“I met with Nwuche, two weeks before he went to them. He said, ‘look, I am your supporter’. We had breakfast in my house. Ask him. He criticises other people very well. Let them remove me, if they want to remove me.”
From the accounts of the local government chiefs who made it to Government House, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Abua/Odual, may have been disciplined by the police commissioner for allegedly ‘working’ with the Amaechi loyalists.
Udi Odum of Abua/Odual, who made the allegation, said the only option left to the people was to take their security destiny in their hands against invaders, since the DPO in his area has been removed.
According to the council chiefs from Ahoada East, Ahoada West, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni and Abual/Odual, the DPOs in their respective domains had stormed their local government areas to stop their solidarity trip to the governor in Port Harcourt.
The council chiefs also reported that kidnapping, which the governor had reduced to the barest minimum, has become a thriving business in the state again.
Ahoada East council chairman Cassidy Okegbidi said the abduction of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members was causing a panic in his domain.
Okegbidi said: “Right now, there is no single NYSC member in my area.”
Some supporters of the governor claimed the area commanders of their localities came to their councils’ headquarters and aborted their scheduled trips to Port Harcourt.
Explaining the mission of the people for Orashi, Leader of Rivers State Caucus in the House of Representatives Asita Honourable Asita told the governor that they were at the Government House to show solidarity to him in the face of the on-going crisis within the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ake said: “Our sons and daughters are beneficiaries of your human capital development. Governor Amaechi’s people oriented projects in the Orashi region cannot be compared to any past administration in the state.
“The workers of iniquity will not see you. The people of Orashi region and Rivers people will see the last day of the expiration of your tenure. Amaechi, please count on our support at all times.
“Our towns and villages are riddled with multiplicity of your high-impact developmental projects, spanning from Kubor in Abua/Odual Local Government through all the nooks and crannies of Orashi region down to Ndoni, at the Northern tip of the region.
“Finally, we are here as a people, united to salute your courage, which often times is misunderstood by your detractors. Your vision, forthrightness and indeed, your unparallel accomplishments in governance are worthy of emulation.” Ake concluded.
