Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt
Rivers State Government has called on the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mohammed Adamu, to take actions against supporters of former Governor of the state and now Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, for threatening the peace of the state.
In a statement signed by the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, the state raised the alarm that Amaechi’s supporters in a video that had gone viral on the social media had threatened the people of the state should the former governor be unfairly treated in the crisis currently rocking his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“While it is not in our place to advise people on who to support or otherwise, we take very strong exception to the provocative and incendiary language used by the leader of the group, where he threatened the peace of the state and invoked fire, brimstone, death and destruction on Rivers State and our dear Rivers people, should any unfavorable judgment and action befall their leader, Amaechi, in the current crises rocking the fractured state APC,” he stated.
Nsirim added: “Let us state categorically here and for the avoidance of doubt, that the Rivers State Government is fully ready and unflinchingly determined to bring the full weight of the law to bear on anybody who threatens, either by unguarded pronouncements or irresponsible provocative action, to breach the hard earned peace and security which the state Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has worked so hard to entrench and sustain in the state.”
He restated that Wike is neither involved in the crisis rocking the fractured APC in the state, nor has any interest in the emergence or determination of the leadership of the party whatsoever.
The commissioner said the state was also very concerned with what he described as “wild and dangerous threats and intimidation” made against the judiciary in Rivers State, adding that the utterances were grossly inciting, offensive, derogatory and treasonable.
He recalled that the state had witnessed a total shutdown of the judicial arm, and the courts were held “under siege” by supporters of the APC who brazenly locked out and deliberately quarantined lawyers, magistrates, judges and the entire judicial staff of the court premises for several months.
Nsirim noted that it was Wike who liberated the judiciary from its forced bondage, and gave judicial officers a new lease of life as well as allowed the courts to breathe again when he became governor in 2015.
“The Rivers State Government hereby warns that it will come down hard on any trouble maker, who desires to foment trouble in the state.
“We want to use this opportunity to put the IG and all the security agencies on notice to live up to their responsibilities by taking prompt action on what is obviously a clear case of treason by a group whose leader is well known in the country,” he stated.
