Rivers Crisis: Senate Committee Submits Report, Wed …Get Ready For Revolution, Melaye Tells FG …Councillors Threaten To Occupy Rivers Assembly

Rivers State Head of Service, Barrister Samuel LongJohn (right) with chairman, Civil Service Commission, Sir Ngo Martyns Yellowe, during a thanksgiving service to mark the commencement of the 2013 Civil Service Week in Port Harcourt, yesterday

The committee set up by the Senate to investigate the political crisis rocking the Rivers State House of Assembly says its report may be ready for presentation on Wednesday.
Chairman of the panel, Senator Kabiru Gaya said the committee which spent a few days in Port Harcourt met with some dramatis personal in the unfolding political drama in the state.
Apart from the Rivers State Governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi, the committee met with controversial police commissioner in the state, Mbu Joseph Mbu, who has been accused of bias in his handling of the crisis in the state.
The committee also met the state Director, State Security Service, Olusegun Agbaje, as well as Commander, Joint Task Force (JTF), Maj Gen Bata Debiro, among other security officials.
The panel also met with Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, two former Deputy Speakers of the House of Representatives, a former Senator, amongst others.
Gaya, who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on States and Local Governments, said shortly before the members of the committee left Port Harcourt on Saturday promised that the report of the committee will be based on the facts that have been established.
He ruled out the possibility of presenting a lopsided report, stating, “check my records. I was governor of Kano State twenty years ago. “ I know the importance of this assignment. Go and check, we  had the police and SSS presence round the clock, so how could any of us be compromised”.
The committee met with the two lawmakers from both sides of the divide in their hospital beds, and interacted with them.
Meanwhile, the political crisis in Rivers State took a more worrisome dimension on Saturday, as a group asked President Goodluck Jonathan to be prepared for a revolution similar to what was recently witnessed in Egypt.
The warning is sequel to the July 8 fracas at the Rivers House of Assembly Chambers in Port Harcourt, where five out of the 32 members, attempted to remove the Speaker.
In a statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the Anti-Corruption Network, Dino Melaye, titled, “Touch Amaechi, touch Nigeria,” the group accused the President of sponsoring the ongoing crisis in Rivers State, saying that the life of the Governor of Rivers State was in the hands of Mr. President and his wife.
The former House of Representatives member said, “We will do everything within the confines of the law to protect our fragile democracy which the President or his wife does not know how we got it.”
“The abuse of law and order by both the anti-Amaechi legislators and the Nigerian Police is not only disgraceful but will not be tolerated by the mass of the people in this country. The Presidency cannot absolve herself from this satanic manifestation. Who ordered the military withdrawal from Rivers state Government House?”
Continuing, “What is going on in Rivers State is African magic. We leave Amaechi’s life in the hands of Mr. President and his wife. We give the IGP one week to remove the Commissioner of Police in Rivers state; failure to do so, we shall mobilize Nigerians like never before to occupy the Force HQ in Abuja. The President should get ready for the Egyptian treatment”.
“Usurpers will not kill democracy. The battle to safeguard our democracy is a battle of no retreat, no surrender. President Jonathan is behaving as if he has no legacy intentions. Try us and see, I dare the Presidency, Enough is Enough.”
Amaechi has been in trouble for opposing some policies of the Jonathan-led administration including the Sovereign Wealth Fund, as well as his desire to run for a higher office in 2015, an ambition the President considers a threat to his re-election bid.
The Rivers helmsman is still on the suspension slammed on him by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, days after winning the May 24 chairmanship election of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum, NGF.
In another development, the National Councillors Forum of Nigeria, Rivers State chapter has threatened to occupy the Rivers State House of Assembly, if the five legislators opposed to Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi go ahead with their alleged plan to cause more trouble in the state .
Speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt, Chairman of the forum, Hon. Lesor Nwigbaranee while reacting to the news of the purported impeachment of the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Dan Amachree said the forum is in touch with its members and would not allow anybody no matter how highly placed to destabilize the state and cause anarchy.
He said Rivers people are peace loving going about their business and making giant strides in development.
He wondered why some disgruntled politicians would put a spanner in the wheel of progress.
He said the forum would adopt civil disobedience which is acceptable in a democracy to fight injustice and flagrant disregard to the rule of law.
He said they would mobilise their supporters to prevent the anarchy that is looming in the state.
He urged the people of Rivers State to unite and condemn the rape of democracy, adding that the stage is set for a scripted state of emergency.
He wondered why neighbouring states in the Niger Delta are peaceful and Rivers state is selected to be overheated.
He said politics should not divide us as Rivers people adding that the crisis was only a means of controlling the apparatus of the state.
“Head or tail,we are Rivers people”, he said, therefore, we must fight to protect the state from sliding into anarchy
He advised well meaning Nigerians to caution the perpetrators of this evil and warned that it was a similar action in Western Nigeria in the 1960s that led to the collapse of the first republic.
“And we should rise up as a nation to condemn what is going on in Rivers State”, he added.