Rivers Crisis: We’ll Ask Our Supporters To Protect Themselves – APC …As Senators Warn Against Declaring Seats Vacant

The All Progressives Congress has said it may have no alternative than to ask its members in Rivers State to take steps to protect themselves if the perceived impunity in the state continues.
The party, yesterday, said it has reached a point where it will ask its members to react in the face of alleged police bias in the political crisis in Rivers State.
Rising from its National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja, the party listed what it considered several infractions against it and its members in Rivers State, especially Governor Rotimi Amaechi, by the police.
It said the police in the state was being used by the Peoples Democratic Party to unleash terror on its members.
The communique, made available to the press by the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated in part: “The National Executive Committee of the APC has now resolved that if this acts of impunity and lawlessness continue unabated and the Police persists in being as an enforcement arm of the PDP to the detriment of our members, it will have no alternative than to ask our teeming members all over the country and especially in Rivers State to take whatever steps that are necessary to protect their lives and property.”
The APC NEC meeting, which had in attendance retired General Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, the Governors of Rivers, Lagos, Edo, Nasarawa, Kwara, Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Sokoto, Ekiti, and Ogun States and the Deputy Governors of Oyo, Imo, Kano and Zamfara States and other party leaders, was chaired by the Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande.
It was also attended  by all members of the Interim National Executive Committee along with the leadership of the APC in the two chambers of the National Assembly.
Mohammed said further in the communique: “The National Executive Committee of the APC commended the courage, maturity and political sagacity of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State in the face of serial unprovoked and unwarranted assaults on his person, his constitutional rights and those of the Government and People of Rivers State. The conduct of Governor Amaechi represents our Party’s maturity and compliance with the rule of law in response to escalating impunity. The APC is very proud of him.
“Any cursory observer of events in Rivers State since February, 2013 will be left in no doubt as to the culture of lawlessness and impunity being promoted and supported by the Presidency, and executed by the State Commissioner of Police Joseph Mbu, who has become the defacto military Governor of Rivers State and sole administrator of the PDP in the State.
“A few instances of the brazen lawlessness and violations of the Constitution will suffice here – the forceful dispersal of 13,201 newly recruited teachers in the Port Harcourt Stadium using tear gas; blockading the entrance to the Government House in Port Harcourt and forcing the State Governor to use another entrance; preventing an aircraft chartered by the State Governor from taking off, alleging that the Governor was trying to smuggle out a legislator wanted by the Police, no apology was offered to the Governor, the disruption of a peaceful rally during which Senator Magnus Abe was shot with intent to kill; the several disruptions of Save Rivers Group rallies, and the unlawful detention of anybody perceived to be a sympathizer of Governor Rotimi Amaechi, while allowing pro-Jonathan, an Anti-Amaechi groups, to organize rallies unmolested.
“The National Executive Committee of the APC has now resolved that if this acts of impunity and lawlessness continue unabated and the Police persists in being as an enforcement arm of the PDP to the detriment of our members, it will have no alternative than to ask our teeming members all over the country and especially in Rivers State to take whatever steps that are necessary to protect their lives and property.
“Following on the forgoing and in view of the joint resolutions of the National Assembly on Rivers State, and other constitutional breaches by the Presidency, the APC hereby directs its members in the National Assembly to block all legislative proposals including the 2014 Budget and confirmation of all nominees to military and civilian positions to public office until the rule of law and constitutionalism is restored in Rivers State in particular and Nigeria in general.”
Meanwhile, Fifty-two members of the Senate, nearly half of its membership of 109, have written to the leadership of the National Assembly to express their objection to any attempts to declare vacant the seat of any member of the Upper House who defects to another political party.
In the letter, dated January 20, 2014, the Senators warned that such vacancies should be declared only through a process of recall by the relevant constituents or by the pronouncement of a court of competent and final jurisdiction, rather than what they called ‘politics of intimidation, harassment and or comment that could jeopardize the peaceful co-existence and unity of Nigeria.’
The Senators, citing the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which has resulted in some Senators planning to defect to other political parties, stressed the need to forestall imminent crisis in the polity.
Urging the Senate to continue to accommodate all legislators irrespective of their views, they said Nigeria could only make progress when they tolerate and respect one another and the rule of law.
According to them, “having reaffirmed our confidence in the National Assembly as the only institution empowered by the Constitution to protect and defend the collective interest and yearnings of Nigerians, we are however, concerned about some comments, statements and threats in the print and electronic media credited to some elected and unelected persons threatening to declare vacant, the seats of some Senators who are the representatives of the Nigerian people in the National Assembly.”
They stressed that they view such threats with serious concern as they are mischievous and capable of undermining the independence of the legislature and taking away the mandate given to such Senators as the representatives of the Nigerian people.
The Senators further drew attention to a pending legal matter at the Federal High Court in Abuja on the same subject matter, pointing out that it is the practice of the Senate that where a matter is pending in a law court, it cannot be a subject of discussion or debate on the floor of Senate.
“We hereby note that this is not the first experience in the Senate where some Senators have moved to political parties of their choice as a result of one reason or the other, whereas, such has not caused any political tension or intimidation,” the letter cautioned.
“It is our resolve that the Senate should maintain and sustain this principle and precedence,” they added.

President Goodluck Jonathan speaking at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday