Rivers Crisis: Don’t Pull The Ladder You Use In Climbing, Wike Warns Fubara
…Fubara Didn’t Force Pro-Wike Commissioners To Resign, Says Rivers Govt
…Come Back To Your Godson, LP’s Itubo Urges Wike
Amid the political crisis rocking Rivers State, ex-governor Nyesom Wike, has warned politicians not to pull the ladder they used in getting to exalted positions.
“Don’t pull the ladder that you use in climbing. When you are coming down, the ladder may not be there,” Wike said on Sunday.
“And leave the ladder too so that other people can also climb the ladder.”
Wike, who has been embroiled in a dispute with his successor and incumbent governor of the oil-rich state, Siminalayi Fubara, spoke at his residence in Port Harcourt, the state capital while addressing the traditional ruler of Ogbaland who had come to felicitate with him on the occasion of his birthday.
The chiefs and other members of the traditional institution from Ogbaland in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the state were led by the traditional ruler, Nwachukwu Nnam-Obi III, who sued for peace in the state.
In his response, Wike, who is also the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), assured the monarch that he will listen to his advice and that he is welcome to peaceful resolutions.
Speaking further, the minister debunked claims that the political imbroglio is an ethnic war, insisting that there is no such consideration.
“We didn’t vote based on ethnicity…but for the unity of Rivers,” the minister said.
“We shall never be part of violence but will always support peace.”
“There are rules within the political group you emerge.
“You cannot say that because an Oba has emerged and then an Oba will not follow the rules of the traditional institution. No; an Oba will always obey the rules. So also in politics, there are things you must not do and there are things you must do.”
Fubara Didn’t Force Pro-Wike Commissioners To Resign, Says Rivers Govt
Amid the feud between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, and the gale of resignations trailing the crisis, the Rivers State Government has said the governor did not force any of his commissioners to resign.
“Whatever their reason, I will like to say that the governor did not force, compel or ask anyone to leave,” the state’s Commissioner for Information, Joe Johnson, said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
“Those who left did so on their own volition, and according to their reasons.”
The commissioner said a structural firm confirmed that assembly Rivers State Assembly Complex was no longer habitable and that informed the decision of the governor to demolish the complex.
Johnson said even Wike agreed that the complex was no longer habitable, adding that his principal is a pacifist and he is doing all in his capacity to quell the crisis.
Rivers State has been a theatre of the absurd in the last three months with the state House of Assembly serving as the “boxing ring”. The rift between Wike and Fubara split lawmakers in the House with 27 of them decamping from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a party in whose central government Wike currently serves as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The feud also saw the emergence of parallel sittings, impeachment plot against the governor, demolition of the Assembly complex, and gale of resignations of pro-Wike commissioners in Fubara’s cabinet.
Though President Bola Tinubu and some elder statesmen have intervened in the crisis, there seems to be no end in sight to the political tsunami sweeping the oil-rich South-South state.
Come Back To Your Godson, LP’s Itubo Urges Wike
Meanwhile, as the political climate in Rivers State gets turbo-charged, the Labour Party (LP)’s 2023 Governorship Candidate, Beatrice Itubo, has urged ex-governor Nyesom Wike to make peace with his successor, Siminalayi Fubara.
“I’m using this medium to call on the FCT minister to come back to his godson (Fubara) so that they can be able to mend their fences and move forward,” Itubo said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
The LP candidate said the people of the state will be the most affected if the crisis is allowed to fester beyond what it is as they won’t enjoy the dividends of democracy.
Itubo, who has been in talks with Fubara of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said she withdrew her petition against the governor’s election at the Supreme Court to give peace a chance.
The LP candidate said she took the decision “because of the volatile nature, the tensed nature in Rivers State”.
“You can’t say you want peace and you are still in court,” she said, adding that “Sir Fubara is a democrat and pro-workers and that is why I am doing this.”
Rivers State has been a theatre of the absurd in the last three months with the state House of Assembly serving as the “boxing ring”. The rift between Wike and Fubara split lawmakers in the House with 27 of them decamping from the PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a party in whose central government Wike currently serves as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The feud also saw the emergence of parallel sittings, impeachment plot against the governor, demolition of the Assembly complex, and gale of resignations of pro-Wike commissioners in Fubara’s cabinet.
Though President Bola Tinubu and some elder statesmen have intervened in the crisis, there seems to be no end in sight to the political tsunami sweeping the oil-rich South-South state.
