Okenyi Kenechi
Politics in Rivers State is like show business. The characters in that business always love being in the spotlight irrespective of whether the people are dying or not. They want to be seen as being in charge, even if it means running the entire state down.
That is why politics in the state is perhaps the most toxic in the whole of Nigeria leading to monumental shedding of blood for the utmost excitement of the rest of the country. That is also why Rivers of Blood is a common cliché used to explain political activities in the state and for these particular actors in this bloody show business, it does not matter if a whole local government perishes as long as the show continues.
Can you imagine a Mohammadu Buhari from Katsina running against Atiku Abubakar from Adamawa but it is in Rivers State that people are being killed? That is the extent that political actors will go to show that they can deliver.
Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, to an extent, achieved remarkable feats while he held sway as Governor of Rivers State. It is something that no one will take away from him, even though some of his failures as governor will haunt him for years. He has also recently found it a duty to light a match stick in a room full of ignitable liquids. His interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, May 7 was full of lies and deception.
I was there at Isiokpo, the headquarters of the Ikwerre Youths Movement, IYM, on 13th January 2018 during the homecoming of Amaechi organised by the leadership of IYM when he told the crowd that “If we lose this time, we will be finished politically”
He said: “When I became governor, I took 60 per cent of my appointees from IYM because I thought that they will go back and build with you but they did not do that”.
“The future of all of us is your hands. The president has said that there will be no more rigging, even if it means him losing the election. So, the era of result writing is gone. Once you thumbprint, it will electronically appear in Abuja. That is why you must register and make sure your vote counts”
“People should go and register to vote. If you sell your vote, you have sold your power. If you don’t have power, you don’t have a voice. If we lose, we are finished politically”
The crowd chorused “Impossible”
That belief that if he and his associates fail to reclaim power from his erstwhile former chief of staff, they will be finished politically, led to the violence which characterised the 2019 General Elections in Rivers State.
The Minister had all the trappings of state power. Few months before he made the statement at Isiokpo, a team F-SARS personnel had attacked the Governor’s motorcade, injuring his outrider.
Then came the EFCC which declared some officials of the state government wanted for withdrawing a certain amount of money for the state government.
But while the minister was in Abuja galvanising on how to oust his friend turned foe, the sand was shifting under his feet. The poverty politics of the Buhari-led FG helped to ensure that they hired crowd to fill rally venues. People disassociated from whatever the APC stood for. The governor tapped into that and challenged the minister to name one project he ever attracted to the state since he became a minister. He named none.
The dock workers in the state had protested openly, saying that the policies of NIMASA headed by the minister’s protégé had made business hard, adding that a lot of people have lost their jobs.
APC had gone to Opobo for their free Rivers initiative only to discover that the town was empty that they had to crown Chidi Lloyd a king as no traditional ruler was on ground to receive them.
That was when I wrote that the biggest barrier to APC succeeding in the state is Buhari and Amaechi’s ego but along came Senator Magnus Abe who would never back down from the mounting injustice done to democratic principles of allowing people select who would lead them.
Amaechi in that Channels TV interview stopped short of accusing the judiciary of taking a bribe to frustrate the APC and bar the party from participating in the election. But is that the truth? No! The minister tried to impose a candidate on the party but some persons within the party said no. That was why people like Dumo Lulu-Briggs left the APC to Accord Party.
Abe is smart and was strategic in the way he dismantled the party.
That mistake of May 5, 2018, and then the invasion of the High Court on May 10 in a bid to stop the court from sitting and granting an interlocutory injunction sought by Ibrahim Umah and 23 others was a terrible one.
The minister’s men went to town, declaring the High Court “Wike’s Supermarket”, disparaging the judiciary.
Justice Chiwendu Nwogu nailed the fate of Rivers APC to the wall while the Supreme Court presided by Justice Bade on February 8, and then Justice Rhodes a week later gave the party a decent burial.
But is the minister finished politically as he warned in January 2018 at Isiokpo? Your guess is as good as mine.
It is instructive to note that during the just-concluded presidential election, both the minister and Cole did not win their wards for their party.
That is why I find the assertion by the minister that the candidate of African Action Congress, AAC, Awara Biokpomabo, was coasting to victory before the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, suspended the election funny.
According to the minister, the commission did not have any reason to suspend the election as it was free and fair devoid of any violence. But the world saw how military men invaded the INEC collation centre in Port Harcourt, walked journalists out of the premises and ordered policemen on elections duties out of the premises. The police officers protested. That protest led to a walk-out by INEC staff who said that they were not safe to conduct their business under such a hostile environment.
The minister also said that no one was killed during the March 9 Guber election. That is a lie too.
The killing of Dr Ferry Gberegbe, a lecturer at the Ken Saro Wiwa Polytechnic Bori on the 10th of March was captured on video. Dr Gberegbe was an agent of the Peoples Democratic Party in that election.
Personnel of the Federal Anti-Robbery Squad, FSARS, led by ACP Akin Fakorede, stormed the collation centre and shot Dr Gberegbe and two other PDP agents. Dr Gberegbe died a week later in a hospital in Port Harcourt. Sadly, Chidi Lloyd said on national TV that he will only believe the news that the academic has truly died if he gets to see his corpse.
And while testifying before the House of Representatives Joint Committees on Army, Police Affairs and Human Rights and Justice, investigating the activities of the police and army during the 2019 polls in Rivers, Akin Fakorede said that contrary to popular opinions that the police shot late Dr Ferry Gberegbe, the academic died of food poisoning.
Fakorede said: “The police is investigating the incident. But, the family of the man has refused to allow us to conduct an autopsy on the remains of the victim.
“Till now, the police Homicide Department has not seen the remains of the victim. We have visited the hospital and seen the doctor that handled the case.
“The victim must have been shot by his friends. He had a gunshot wound from a locally-made pistol, but died of food poisoning,”
One is forced to ask how the police assumed that the academic was shot possibly by a local pistol and died from food poisoning when the police did not investigate the matter.
Second on the list is Mr Chijioke Davies Azunwor, another agent of the PDP who was shot dead by a military officer.
While testifying during the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Rivers State Government to look into the immediate causes of killings and violence that characterised the general elections in Rivers State led by Justice Monima Danagogo, Mr Marvin Azunwor, the father of the 29 years old Chijioke Davies Azunwor, said his son who was an agent for the Peoples Democratic Party was shot dead by a military officer at the premises of the INEC Registration Area Center in Oyigbo while carrying out his electoral primary assignment.
He said the military officers numbering four alighted from a Prado Jeep and began to shoot sporadically, adding that one of the officers moved towards his son and demanded for the election result of Oyigbo local government which his son said he was not with and immediately the officer pulled the trigger and shot his son inside the RAC, stressing that his son was confirmed dead when rushed to the hospital.
Keen observers of events during the 2019 general election and the orgy of violence which marred the entire process will find the minister’s defence of security agents’ actions during the election repugnant.
Didn’t the minister sing a war song during the APC presidential rally in Port Harcourt? Didn’t 18 persons perish in the stampede that ensured? Who has been prosecuted for those deaths?
Few days to the presidential election, the military invaded homes of PDP chieftains in Port Harcourt and carried out arrests. On the day of the election, an army captain and a police DPO in Okrika led thugs to snatch electoral materials for Wards 7,8 and 9.
In Abonnema, one Thywill Jumbo, an agent of the PDP was shot by soldiers. Later on, the whole town would boil as soldiers engaged locals leading to the death of about 37 persons. The Amanyanabo of Abonnema, King Disreal Bob-Manuel said that a certain political party refused to sign a peace accord the traditional council of the town initiated. In Ebubu Eleme, soldiers sat and watched as thugs snatched ballot boxes.
INEC was unequivocal in its indictment of the army. The European Union and other election observers did not have nice words for the role the army played in that election.
The confessions by collation officers in some LGAs on February 26, 2019 buttress this point.
Mrs Mary Efeture Imawuya, the INEC Electoral Officer of Ikwerre LGA, said in a video that has now gone viral that collation of votes was never done in the entire LGA because the army destroyed ballot papers which had been thumb printed.
She said: “Between 7 and 8 pm on Saturday, February 23, 2019, the military invaded INEC office at Isiokpo and they walked out every ad-hoc staff that was there to present their results to the Collation Officers. The evidence is still there. We took recordings.
“At the end of the day, no Collation was carried out. The results of the Collation Officers, issued to them, was retrieved by me and returned backed to the INEC State Office”.
“We sent messages to all our polling officers that they should report at Isiokpo with their results. As they were coming, one after the other, the Collation Officers were asked to identify their polling units and do their Collation”, she said.
She added that the military disrupted the process by sporadic shootings and snatched the election materials.
Incidentally, Ikwerre LGA is the local government area of the minister of transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.
In Emohua, the case was on a new high. The collation officer of the LGA, Steve Adudu turned up with over 72, 000 votes. When the results led to protests, he was asked by the Presidential Electoral Officers of the State, Professor Anifiok Essien to present the results from wards that made up the entire LGA and he said he did not have them. But the INEC Electoral Officer for Emohua Local Government Area, Kenneth Etah disputed the figures.
According to him: As I speak, I do not have any results to present for Emohua Local Government Area because collation did not take place.
“This was due to sporadic shootings that disrupted the process. There was pandemonium and everything was scattered. After one hour of shootings, security officials evacuated us to the council hall.
“We remained there, while materials remained in my office. By 5 am, I discovered my office was burgled. I have not seen my Collation Officer or the materials. I have not seen results. I submit there were no results”.
According to him, “The Returning Officer for Emohua Local Government Area who disappeared with the invading soldiers resurfaced with at the Rivers East Collation Centre in a company of soldiers.”
INEC Electoral Officer of Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mr Leo Okon who addressed the Rivers East Senatorial District Collation Centre at Elekahia was also unequivocal in his indictments of the soldiers and their activities during the election.
Why is Amaechi defending them?
I think it is time for political leaders in the state including the minister to look into the mirror and ask themselves decent questions.
Okenyi Kenechi writes from Port Harcourt.
