The wave of dissolution of institutions in Rivers State which the new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration consider to be either lacking in propriety or needed administrative repositioning, reached a frightening climax on Thursday with resistant protest by APC supporters.
In what observers saw as ironic role reversal, Wike has firmly wielded the broom to sweep clean some institutions.
The new PDP administration had already gotten the State legislature to approve the dissolution of the Board of the Greater Port Harcourt City, the Rivers Independent Electoral Commission(RSIEC) which conducted the May council Pole which proaiaduced virtually all APC Chairmen, and the state Judicial Service Commission.
With the dissolution of the Board of the Greater Port Harcourt City and its reconstitution with Chief Desmond Akawor, replacing Dame Aleruchi Cookey-Gam, former chairman and Chief Ferdinand Anabraba as new Secretary and the state legislature querying the RSIEC staff last week, the atmosphere in APC and the councils became charged and apprehensive.
The Thursday Peaceful Protest by the Supporters Rivers House Of Assembly Complex, and the Warning by the elected chairmen was therefore a preemptive action . The newly elected chairmen of local government areas on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC),in the State, warned the state government and House of Assembly of dire consequences, if they were dissolved.
The youths, numbering over 1,000 were protesting against what they termed as attempt to unlawfully remove the council chairmen from office. The placard-carrying protesters chanting pro-APC songs, were tear-gassed by armed police men around the Assembly complex. But, the protesters resisted the tear-gas.
Some of their placards read: ‘Rule of Law is the beauty of Democracy’, ‘We shall resist you with every legal means at our disposal’, ‘Dissolution of LGA is detrimental’, ‘PDP leave elected LG chairmen alone’, ‘Wike wants to destroy our local councils and Rivers State is falling fast under Wike’
Earlier, the chairmen under the aegis of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Rivers State chapter, had raised the alarm that such plan would plunge the state into further crisis.
Legal Adviser of state ALGON and Chairman, Degema LGA, Barr. Sogbeye Eli, while addressing newsmen in Port Harcourt, on behalf of the 22 LGA chairmen, warned that they were duly and constitutionally elected, adding that neither the governor, nor the Assembly has right to terminate their tenure.
Eli who explained that ALGON’s statement was expedient because of the looming crisis the dissolution would cause in the state, vowed that the association would resist it. “It is important the nation is put on red alert. If we are going to die, let us die”.
Barr. Eli pointed out that the steps taken by the House of Assembly and the Executive to dissolve the State Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC)were political vendetta”, he said.
He advised the government to respect court processes and concentrate on developmental projects, stressing that the state needed peace, adding, “If the government is responsible, it should respect court. As they were elected, so, also, we were elected”.
APC Reacts
The APC, Rivers on its part, said credible information available to it confirmed, without doubt, that the Rivers State House of Assembly had perfected plans to kick-start the process of dismantling the elected Local Governments in Rivers State by moving and adopting a motion on the floor of the House empowering governor Nyesom Wike to dissolve ”the recently duly elected Local Government Councils in Rivers State, saying the action is expected to take place in a couple of hours from now”.
The APC in a statement in Port Harcourt; Rivers State by its state Publicity Secretary, Mr. Chris Finebone, said that the party has concrete evidence of names that have been compiled by the State Government as Care-taker Committees that will replace the present duly elected 23 Local Government Councils in Rivers State.
The Party said it would like to draw the attention of all to the negative consequences of such an action by the Nyesom Wike-led Rivers State Government as it pointed out that it will be illegal and sub-judice and therefore capable of threatening the peace, law and order in the State.
“We would like to state that such an action will be in clear contempt of subsisting matters before a Port Harcourt Federal High Court in Suit No: CA/PH/131/2015 and the Court of Appeal Suit No: FHC/PH/CS/84/2015. “We would like to state that such an action will be in clear contempt of subsisting matters before a Port Harcourt Federal High Court in Suit No: CA/PH/131/2015 and the Court of Appeal Suit No: FHC/PH/CS/84/2015.”, the party stated.