Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has again been charged to buckle
his belt and fight insecurity in the state against rising killings and
relocation of businesses, or, decline taking another Oath of Office on
May 29, 2019.
The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety
Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, who handed down the challenge
on Monday, in reaction to the deteriorating security the situation in
the state argued that as a state governor, Wike’s primary duty is to
secure the lives and property of the people, without which citing of
infrastructure and any other corollary of development would amount to
zero.
Peterside lamented that gradually, Rivers State was becoming a ghost
state and a cemetery where terror runs riot round the clock and people
live and move in daily fear of either kidnapper, dare-devil armed
robbers, or marauding cultists who kill and beheaded at will.
“Life, in Rivers State, has become a sort of jackpot as residents who
wake up in the morning are not sure of living to see another night, just
as those who eventually make it to the night are uncertain they would
see the next morning. When such residents manage to snatch a morsel of
sleep, they wake up amid the horrors of severed heads, decapitated
bodies, and trails of blood. To Rivers residents, day and night have
both become emblems of terror. In Wike’s Rivers State, people are killed
while waiting for or driving in traffic, on the streets, while watching
a game of soccer and at homes. Both the poor and wealthy live in fear of
each other.
The NIMASA Director General said that latest figures emerging from the
state are both frightening and capable of permanently shutting out
Rivers State from the list of potential business destinations for
investors. He countered Gov. Wike over his recent claims that
International Oil Companies, OICs, operating in the state were
responsible for the killings and kidnappings in the state, saying that
the governor was only trying to play smart like the proverbial ostrich.
He insisted that insecurity had prospered in the state to the extent
Gov. Wike had patronised it and its direct perpetrators.
“Insecurity has been this lucrative for the direct actors because Mr.
Governor has patronised and pampered its primary and passive
perpetrators. Wike knew that though keeping those violent structures
from 2015, when he first contested for the governorship, to 2019, when
he sought re-election, would build for him a charred and bloody
boulevard to return to the Office of Governor of Rivers State, yet he
cared less to the cost it would impose on the people. Rather than
protect Rivers State, as he swore to do on 29th May 2015, Wike chose to
protect his gluttonous quest for public office. Like his mentor, Emperor
Nero, Wike partied and gulped drums of champagne while Rivers burnt.
Peterside questioned whether the Rivers State Governor still had a
conscience and wondered how he slept night after night as reports of
fresh killings, hordes of kidnapping emerged on a daily basis. “Just
like every sane citizen of Rivers State would ponder, I’m at a loss how
Mr. Wike slept night after night when he received reports of daily
killings and hordes of kidnappings that occurred in the state.
Only on Sunday, reports emerged of mass murder of innocent natives of
Kono-Bo-ue, a community in Khana local government, and by Monday
morning, a community leader said it had risen to twenty. On Monday
morning, also, reports come that on Sunday night, about 2 persons were
killed in Isiodu, Emohua local government, which were exclusive of the
horror that the short Ndele-Ahoada stretch of the East-West road has
become to locals and general road users. A few weeks ago, a bus-load of
commuters heading to Abua, in Abua-Odual local government area, had the
passengers kidnapped even the bus driver was killed in cold blood. About
two days later, a bus conveying early bird travelers to Warri, Delta
State, suffered a similar fate in the hands of armed kidnappers. The
driver was also murdered in the presence of the passages. Those are
fewer instances of reported cases as there were possibly many, many
unreported such incidents.
While condoning with affected families, Peterside was of the opinion
that it does not require rocket science to rail-in the patrons, actors,
and beneficiaries of the crime industry in Rivers State. “All that is
needed is the political will on the part of Mr. Wike, to repent and
turn the heat on the crime chefs and their dining tables. No doubt, the
greater population of Rivers natives and residents, actually fed-up with
the situation, are ready to lend support to terminate this sinister
business. There is no doubt that national security agencies are also
ready to provide the necessary support to the state government but are
only waiting on Wike to take the lead”, Peterside added.
He warned that unless urgent actions were taken by Gov. Wike, more
businesses would wound up to seek a secure environment. According to the
NIMASA Chief, Rivers State has maintained a ridiculous pole position on
the national scale of poverty rating and misery index amidst huge inflow
of national and local revenue under Wike. He regretted that the case of
the state has become like that of the “Ancient Mariner” who lamented
“Water, water everywhere, but not a single drop to drink”, making it a
by-word in the comity of modern states.
He advised Wike to learn to separate politics from governance which he
added, is what Rivers State needs right now. “Wike had shown that the
governorship office was bigger than his capacity. His first four years
as governor are just enough for the trial-and-error jamboree he
subjected the state to. I doubt that Rivers people will have the
patience for another four years of circuit dance in the hands of Wike.
Since the office is bigger than his capacity, Wike should call for help,
and there are Rivers sons and daughters, eager to lend a hand for the
growth of the state. Otherwise, Wike should reject taking another Oath
of Office on May 29, 2019, which will be an honourable way to save his
chequered legacy.”