Lorine Emenike
Rivers State Council of Elders and leadership have condemned the way and manner with which politicians in the state handled the 2019 general elections.
Addressing the group in an emergency meeting held by stakeholders of the council in Port Harcourt, the state chairman of the elders’ council and former DSS boss, Chief Albert Horsfall said “there is no way as elders of the State that we would sit and watch two of our sons in the persons of the Governor, Nyesom Wike and the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi destroy the state. They are taking the state for a ride and we will not allow it.
“I suggest we review our letters of invitation to them. We have written to them before, so we will invite them again. They are our sons and we sent them on a message to represent us, so I don’t think they would disobey us. They are working for us, so they are not bigger than us,” Horsfall said.
He condemned the high level of thuggery witnessed in the yet-to-be-concluded guber elections in Rivers State contrary to other states and urged all well-meaning Rivers people to join in condemning the current political violence and increased insecurity in the state.
Continuing, chief A. K Horsefall enumerated the epileptic state politicians in the state have reduced the state to.
He said, “Rivers state has been run down by internecine quarrels and arguments; by puerile schisms and machinations; by slanderous propaganda and posturings and by numerous acts and utterances! If we recall, similar situations have happened before, not too long ago! As then and now, mine was, perhaps, the lone voice in the wildernesses”.
Also, “we of this generation look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves why every routine dispensation in other parts of the country will be a controversial challenge in Rivers State?
“This state was created over fifty years ago over the sweat and blood of dedicated and determined sons and daughters of Rivers State. Why is the present generation of politicians and ‘leaders’ squandering what their fathers shed their sweat for? Who told crop of political actors that the state will end with them or had started with them? Why will the normal general elections routinely being held in other parts of the country without rancour be the subject of a major source of controversy and crisis in the state? Is it not because our so-called political leadership will forge the results in their closet, write fake figures and permutations from their bedrooms rather than allow the will of the people to prevail? ‘For we are all actors’.
“We must remember that we will act our part and leave the stage for other generations to come! We must not destroy the stage, but leave it for other actors of future generations to take their turns to perform their acts, hopefully, better than we have done!
“Fellow Rivers men and women, and indeed children and youths whose lives and limbs will be affected by the rascality which characterizes some of the unholy acts that are taking place in the present day.
“Don’t let us sleepwalk into the dangers and discomfort that would likely flow from some of our current action, activities and utterance! Caution your so-called political leaders, etc to apply the breaks to some of their current misguided actions and utterances and excesses that may be capable of leading us to the precipice”
Other speakers who contributed during the meeting expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs in Rivers State. They urged the political class to turn a new leaf or be forced to do so.
