Rivers state Crisis:  ‘’My Last Fight’’- Fubara

By Elizabath Chukwuma

Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers state and a one-time ally of Nyensom Wike, who incidentally was a former governor of the state and now minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, under the present Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration is not happy man.

This is because of the plot to sabotage the proposed Rivers state local government elections by Wike and his loyalists, using the Federal might. Tony Okocha,  the Caretaker Committee Chairman  of the All Progressive Congress, APP, chapter of the state,  and a close political  ally of Wike ,  may have known that if the Rivers state council election should hold as spelt out, Fubara’s  Candidates will win  in all the Local Areas in the state  that the he asked INEC and all the security agencies  ‘’to steer clear  of the Gov. Fubara, organized local government elections on grounds that the legal requirements were not met by the state government.   He had his way.

Olufemi Obaniwonda, the Rivers state Commissioner of Police, was said to have alerted the governor that the Command had received an ‘order   from   Ayuba Ekpeji, Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG, Operations, on the orders of Kayode  Egbetokun,  ‘’restraining   it from providing  security  during the planned Local Government elections in the state on Saturday, October 5, 2024.

The plot to sabotage the Rivers sate local government may have been hatched in such a way as if it was a directive from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the close watch of Mahmood Yakubu, a Professor.  A press statement issued by Grace Iringe –Koko, a Superintendent of police  and  spokesperson of the Rivers state Police Command, on Wednesday, October 2, 2024,  had said that  the proposed  Saturday, October 5, 2024, Local Government  Chairmanship  Election will not be monitored by the police personnel  in the state   as the Command had  received a restraining  order  ‘’preventing  them from providing  security  during the elections’’.    

Wike: FCT, minister

The Nigerian Police  Force, NPF, top hierarchy, which  many believe are working closely with Wike  the FCT , minister , to scuttle the elections,  were said to have concluded plans  to take over the state Independent Electoral Commission , RSEIC,  premises which became a public knowledge .

There were reports that the state police Command had a  plan B, to scale  through  the gates  to enter the strong room  of the Commission  to  cart  away  the essential  electoral materials   meant for the conduct of the planned Saturday Local Government  elections .

The governor , who could not take it from his detractors,  was said to have stormed the Rivers state Independent Electoral Commission,  RSEIC , premises , accompanied  by the Chief of Staff, Speaker of the state House of Assembly , some other  state and National Assembly members , including  party Chieftains, sympathetic to his  cause in the state to forestall the police plot .

An eyewitness account shows that both not for the governor and his loyalists quick intervention to save the situation from degenerating, the FCT, minister’s   plan to scuttle the election with the support of the NPF, would have materialized as some unspecified number of policemen were found inside two trucks and two Hilux vehicles were stationed outside the RSEIC premises in Port Harcourt, the state Capital.

The Rivers state governor , who could not understand the business between the Ekpeji, DIG, Operations and the Rivers state Local Government Chairmanship elections, was said to have mobilized  the state internal security  personnel to provide adequate  security during  the elections.  He was said to have told those that cares to listen  that if the LGAs, elections is  going to be his last fight with the one man, who claims  he owns the state  PDP chapter  and the state,  he is satisfied, with it, stating the era of giving respects to the person is over.  Enough is enough’’, he had remarked.

The governor may have been encouraged to hold the elections  because  of  the Supreme Court Judgment  of July 11, 2024, which   effectively  ‘’outlawed   the administration  of  local  government  councils   with unconnected officers  including  the immediate stoppage  of statutory  allocations to  councils without democratically  elected  local government councils’’.

He may have sent a message to Wike and his cohorts that the state Local government elections must hold as planned   ‘’to comply  with the three  months  of grace  given by  the ruling  APC,  to begin the implementation  of the apex  Court  Judgment  on Local Government Autonomy.

What had happened in Rivers state was not different from what happened in the south eastern state of Anambra, where the opposition APC and PDP, were said to have done everything within their powers, including going through the Court process to stop the council elections in the state but prof. Chukwuma Soludo, a former governor of the   Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Administration, but could not have their way.

 The Professor  of Economics, who was said to have sent a message to he Opposition parties that he elections must hold  as proposed did not hesitate  in doing so  despite complaint of shabby conduct of the pools, which the ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, in the state, Candidates , won  hands down.  

This may have emboldened Gov. Fubara , to give his words that the election must hold in the oil Rivers state as planned, stressing that  the likes of Wike,  the CT,  minister, Chukwuma  Aaron, the  state PDP chapter, Chairman or Fayoade, the state Commissioner of Police  cannot  stop the elections from holding.   

Notwithstanding the tension that had been created I Rivers state over the LGAs, elections, political analysts fears that even the LGAs, election should hold as planned, Gov. Fubara, would be the greatest loser since the PDP, which is his party Chairmanship Candidates would not participate in the election in the state.  The governor may have alluded to this when he told his political Associates   that he would be the greatest lose because the PDP, is not participating in the Saturday’s   LGAs, elections in the Niger Delta region state.

 Nigerians are watching to see how two political gladiators on the warpath in Rivers state over the propsed LGAs, elections, would end it. Many believes that the Anambra spectacles would play out in rIvers state again.  

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