Don’t Allow Politics To Tear Rivers Apart -Activist

Chairman, Rivers State House of Assembly Committee on Environment, Hon Victoria Nyeche (middle), Committee members, Hon Ibiso Nwucha (3rd right) and Hon Anderson Miller (2nd left), Sole Administrator, Rivers State Environmental Sanitation Authority, Mr Ade Adeoyum (left), during the committee’s oversight function to the authority, recently.

As agitation for who flies
the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continues to generate crisis among party members, a Niger Delta activist, Ann-Kio Briggs has cautioned Rivers people not to allow politics tear the state apart.
Briggs who spoke in an exclusive interview last Friday in Port Harcourt, said it would be an injustice if an Ogoni man and the Ijaws in Rivers state are not allowed to occupy the Bricks House in 2015.
She said the people should consider justice, equity and fairness in deciding who becomes next governor of the state, stressing that all the ethnic groups in the state jointly own the state. According to her, the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike cannot aspire to succeed Governor Chibuike Amaechi who is about to conclude his eight years tenure as governor.
“If we are looking at fairness and equity in 2015 election in Rivers State, the people that have the moral right to ask for consideration are the Ijaws  and Ogoni people.
“The Ogoni people have never governed the state before, and the Ijaws too, But if you look at Okilo, he is no longer a Rivers man, Ada George’s government, was short-lived, but even if you make argument that Okilo and Ada George have governed, I will not disagree with you.  But the Ogoni people have a right because they are also from Rivers state untill some part will break away, I personally would want to have another state from Rivers State, the state is too big.
“Although I have never heard Chief Nyesom Wike open his mouth to say that he wants to be governor of Rivers state, I have not read it, hear or see. So if he has not said he wants to contest, people who are using Wike’s name to tear Rivers State apart particularly, my own ethnic group, the Kalabari people, they should be careful because when they destroyed their land, they will not hold anybody responsible’’.
Briggs regretted that those at the forefront of the move to endorse Wike are her people, the Kalabaris, even when the minister has not indicated interest to contest.
She recalled that in 1999, the Kalabaris were key to making Dr Peter Odili the governor of the State even against the most popular candidate from Kalabari, Chief Ebenezer Isokariari, adding that history would judge if what they did then was wrong or right.