The Rivers State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Felix Obuah, speaks with CHUKWUDI AKASIKE on the political crisis rocking the state and sundry issues
THE Majority Leader of the Rivers
State House of Assembly was recently declared wanted by the police. Do
you think the police took the right decision?
The declaration was long overdue because
from the clips we all watched, Chidi Lloyd was almost committing
murder. Despite that, he went down and pretended. You can see his
clothes. There is nothing that shows that he was hit by anybody. But
instead of showing remorse, he ran away. The police are expected to call
him to give his own version of the story. But he is nowhere to be found
and that is why he has been declared wanted. The decision of the police
is right.
The crisis in the state appears to be intractable. What challenges is your party facing in resolving the crisis?
By the special grace of God, the crisis
is not insurmountable. The crisis has lingered up to this extent because
of the attitude of Governor Rotimi Amaechi who has refused to listen to
the voice of reason. If he (Amaechi) does the right thing, we would not
have any problem. The PDP as a party has no single problem. Whatever
problem you are seeing in the state today is as a result of the
governor’s leadership style, his divide-and- rule system. It is not
good. He (Amaechi) is a product of the judiciary. The judiciary gave him
the mandate, but up till now, he has refused to recognise that. Today,
he is blaming the judiciary that he had benefitted from. The issue of
Obio/Akpor is also another aspect of illegality and in all these, the
governor knows the right thing to do and I repeat that I, as the party
leader, have been praying for peace and by the grace of God, there must
be peace.
But you have always preached that the party is supreme.
Yes, the party is supreme. But in
several ways, Governor Amaechi has behaved in a way to show that he is
above the PDP. He has addressed the opposition parties and told them
that they should rise up and challenge the PDP. He has also had several
meetings with the opposition against his own party that brought him to
power. He has made so many statements against the party and he has not
also shown respect for the PDP at the state level. As a governor, the
party that brought him to power has written to him severally, which he
turned down. He is rather sponsoring the opposition. Not only that, the
governor is funding the state exco of the state PDP that was dissolved.
Amaechi is still paying them indirectly and mobilising them against the
current and authentic state exco.
Four northern governors visited
Rivers State recently and some youths went on a protest against such
visit. What is your view on such protest?
They (four northern governors) have no
reason for the frequent visits to the state. Both the governors and
Prof. Wole Soyinka should stop visiting the state. They have enough
problems to solve in their different states. The issue of Boko Haram has
been a serious problem in this nation. We have not heard them taking
any decision to curb the excesses of Boko Haram in their states. Even in
the South-West, we have so many problems and Wole Soyinka has not
addressed them. In Ekiti, people were seriously beaten, but Wole Soyinka
has never addressed such issues. What is the interest they have in
Rivers State? Their frequent visit to Rivers State is fuelling rather
than solving the problem. The Senate has just set up a panel. It (senate
committee) has not come up with its report. They (northern governors)
came to Rivers and said (Joseph) Mbu must go. They (northern governors)
are clamouring for state police. Are they not trying to create more
problems than solve the ones on the ground? They did not come to
sympathise with us; they came to milk us dry. They know that we have the
resources.
What exactly do you mean by selfish interest?
The visit of the northern governors is
not for the interest of the state. It is rather for the interest of
their friend, who is Amaechi. After the meeting of the northern
governors with Amaechi, you could see them boasting that it is the turn
of the North to produce the President because they have the support of
the likes of Amaechi, who has a personal interest. He is using our
money, our resources to sponsor All Progressive Congress and others. You
are aware that the state governor has been frequenting Lagos and other
states. Is Bola Tinubu the leader of PDP? Governor Babatunde Fashola,
who sponsored his court matter on the Nigeria Governors’ Forum election,
of the PDP? Just as I am feeling, that is how so many other youths are
feeling. So, if they protest against some governors coming to the state
to create problems, they (youths) have the freedom of expression.
You led some stakeholders of the
PDP in the state to visit the President recently and you raised some
issues against the governor. Do you think the governor should leave the
PDP?
I am not praying that the governor
should leave the party. I am not also praying that he should stay to
create more problems. If he chooses to leave the party, he is free, if
he chooses to stay, he knows what to do.
What do you think he should do if he chooses to stay?
He should apologise for the wrongs he
has done if he wants to stay and I am ready to forgive him. The party is
also ready to forgive him. Although I have written to the party to take
a disciplinary action against him, if he shows enough remorse, I will
as well plead on his behalf. He is our brother, he is our son; he is our
governor.
What is your view on the fight among lawmakers in the state House of Assembly?
It is very shameful. The Assembly
members were doing their thing. I think it was aggravated by the
governor’s visit to that place with his Aide-de-Camp and his chief of
staff. They went there when they noticed that the people they trusted
have left them to support Evans Bipi and a successful impeachment
process was carried out. So, when they were informed that things had
fallen apart and it was no longer the way they thought, the governor
mobilised his ADC, Chief Security Officer, everybody to the hallowed
chambers and what happened there was a free-for-all. His personnel beat
up a lawmaker almost to a stupor. You can see the ADC, you can see the
orderly; you can see all of them doing that under the watch of the
governor. If not for God, that lawmaker could have lost his life.
We heard about the move by five lawmakers to remove the Speaker in a House of 32 members. Do you think that is right?
There is no way only five lawmakers can
remove a Speaker in the House of 32 members. Maybe the truth has not
been told. From all what we gathered, the majority removed the Speaker.
After the successful removal and the subsequent address by the
‘Speaker,’ Bipi, the governor, who was not comfortable with this, now
mobilised people to the House. But there is no way five people can
remove a Speaker in a House that has 32 people. The Speaker, Bipi, told
us that the House was duly seated and he had the majority who removed
the Speaker (Otelemaba Amachree).
Again, during the NGF election
where we have PDP governors in the majority, the governor that had 16
votes was recognised as the winner against another governor that got 19
votes. How would reconcile this with the norms of democracy?
That is what they told us. I was not
there. Governor Jonah Jang said there was no voting and the purported 19
persons Amaechi is claiming were all in the clip and they said no, all
of us are solidly behind Jang. But, Amaechi is saying that there was an
election and they voted for him. But I am not a governor. If I were to
be a governor, maybe I would have been able to comment on the governors’
forum election. I don’t know what their constitution says.
But the PDP in Rivers congratulated Governor Jang of Plateau State who got 16 votes for emerging as the chairman of NGF.
Before the election, we knew how the
election used to go. It is always by consensus. Before then, the
northern governors had already presented Jang as their consensus
candidate. So, their going into the house was a formality. We
congratulated him because right in the house, Jang said they had
declared him the new NGF chairman on consensus just as it used to be in
the past.
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