PDP Flays Call For Emergency Rule In Rivers

The Rivers State chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), has dismissed calls by some persons in the state and a sections of the country for a state of emergency in Rivers State following pockets of violence and killings in some parts of the state in the last couple of months.
The party said in a statement, signed by the Special Adviser to the PDP Chairman on Media and Publicity, Jerry Needam, yesterday, that “All those calling for the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State are mischievous idlers who have been disengaged from the looting of the state resources by Governor Nyesom Wike’s New Rivers Vision.”
The PDP said that, “Having seen it is no longer business as usual, the only option left for them is to foment trouble in and around the state to discredit the incumbent administration for frustrating them from further looting of state resources.”
The statement quoted the state party Chairman, Bro. Felix Obuah, as this while reacting to what he described as the lamentation of criminals and looters of the state resources who have lost out in the new dispensation in Rivers State.
Berating such callers and proponents of emergency rule in the state, Obuah accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of concocting the mischief in order to rubbish the startling achievements of the Wike-led administration in the state.
According to him, “this is the real motive of the APC for causing crises in parts of the state and having failed in this criminal bid, has resorted to raising aimless and hopeless alarm over non-existent incidences of violence except the ones instigated by them to justify their mischievous call.”
Also describing the move by the frustrated APC as a lost battle, the state PDP boss said Rivers State was generally peaceful, adding that the economy was impressively picking up as a result of the focused leadership of the Wike administration.
Obuah called on “one Prince Odike, who claimed to be the state deputy chairman of the APC, to find a meaningful engagement other than lending himself as a willing tool for the new satanic device of the APC after Mr. Chris Finebone may have been dumped for ineptitude and his crass propaganda.
The PDP, therefore, appealed “to all Rivers people, Nigerians as a whole as well as the international community to continue to discountenance the APC and whatever they stand for, having brought shame and untold hardship on the people.”
It added that the Rivers State Government was people-oriented and will continue to ensure that there was utmost peace in and across the state to bring about meaningful development to the people.
The PDP noted that “Mr Odike said the mind of the APC and believes there cannot be peace in the state except a state of emergency is declared, which means that the APC was clearly behind the pockets of crises in parts of the state to actualize their plot.
“This has also vindicated the PDP, which has been drumming it loud and clear that the APC is behind the skirmishes in the state before and during the March 19, National and State Assembly rerun elections,” the party said.
It emphasised that “the call for a state of emergency is, therefore, unnecessary, and can only make sense in the minds of anarchists like the APC and its members.”

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana