•Group vows to vehemently resist further threat on governor
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has said that the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not aware of the alleged purported list of Caretaker Committee members of the party circulating in the social media and published in some national dailies on Thursday, April 4, 2024.
But there is panic in the state especially in the camp of Fubura because of the political crisis between him and the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
This is because some feared that the minister in his usual style would hijack the party’s structure.
But Fubara after a meeting with the NWC at the party’s national secretariat, in Abuja, restated that the resolutions of a meeting held between the NWC and members of the Board of Trustees (BOTs) and PDP Governors’ Forum in Abuja in March on the issue remain valid.
Fubara, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Nelson Chukwudi, said the position of the party that the executive officers whose tenures had expired in March shall remain in their various capacities until the three months’ extension period approved by the NWC elapses, and new congresses conducted to replace them.
Fubara emphasised that the party stands on the agreement reached on the issue as encapsulated in the letter by the NWC to the state chairman of PDP dated March 27, adding that no amount of intimidation, clandestine moves, wasteful lobbying and needless expenditure of public funds will change the position already taken.
The governor stated that the list purported to be members of the Caretaker Committees of the party in the state was only the imagination of its purveyors, advising those whose names were removed in the fake list and gullible members of the public to ignore it in its entirety.
He said that the party did not at any time remove or replace the names of officers whose tenures had been officially extended for three months, pending possible National Executive Committee ratification on April 18.
Fubara insisted that what was published on Thursday and circulated on social media is not only fake, concocted and manipulated to suit the desperate ambitions of enemies of the state and its people, but a deliberate attempt to provoke members and cause discord in the party.
Similarly, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and other political gladiators in the state have been warned to stop bullying Governor Siminalayi Fubara over the implementation of the Presidential Peace Pact.
A group, Sim For Good Governance (SFGG), gave the warning, yesterday, threatening to resist every attempt by the minister and the 27 lawmakers loyal to him if they insist on impeaching the governor.
The group comprising stakeholders in the Obio-Akpor Local Council of the state rejected the recent threat by the lawmakers to reactivate the impeachment notice if it is their last resort.
Addressing newsmen, the coordinator of the group, Tony Boms declared that the people of Obio/Akpor, which is the area council of both Wike and Amaewhule, are in total support of the governor.
He urged Amaewhule to focus on making laws and leave governance for the governor, stressing that if the speaker is interested in governing the state he should wait till the next electioneering process to come out and contest.
Also, another member of the group, Omenazu Jackson, called on all ethnic groups in Rivers State to support the governor, arguing that the people from the Riverine dichotomy supported the upland during their tenure.
