The political atmosphere in Rivers State was turbo-charged on Thursday as thousands of protesters mainly from the Ogoni ethnic nationality took to the streets and major roads to register their displeasure over the choice of Dakuku Peterside as governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The protesters who were mainly youths from Ogoni blocked major junctions of the East-West Road at Eleme, Akpajo and moved in a procession to the Azikiwe Road where the Government House is located chanting war songs in condemnation of Peterside Dakuku’s choice as the potential flag bearer of the party. The angry protesters were of the view that Governor Amaechi betrayed the confidence Ogonis bestowed on him and went ahead to dump Senator Magnus Abe who represents Rivers South East senatorial district and who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream sector. The Ogoni youths gave Governor Amaechi a 48-hour ultimatum to reverse his decision of choosing Dakuku Peterside as the governorship candidate of the party ahead of their son, Magnus Abe. It would be recalled that Senator Abe was considered a formidable contender for the governorship ticket until APC stakeholders chose Peterside as its preferred choice for the 2015 gubernatorial election. In a bid to forestall breakdown of law and order as the protesters began to make burn fire, police responded by shooting into the air by 9.22 a.m. to scare the protesting youths as their numbers continued to increase with the arrival of each commercial bus. The police also fired several canisters of tear gas to scare them from getting too close to the main gate of the Government House. When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Legborsi Esaen, regretted the decision of the governor who is also the leader of APC in the state, saying “Governor Amaechi has thoroughly betrayed the Ogonis. He has shown how much he loves the Ogoni people”. “We have resolved to support any party that presents an Ogoni as its governorship candidate. We are no longer prepared to play second fiddle in the politics of Rivers State. It is either governorship or nothing,” Esaen stated. Esaen stated further: “We were informed that some Ogoni youths were staging a peaceful protest in front of Government House and one of them was shot. We are still trying to locate where he is and how serious his condition is. “Amaechi should stop playing politics with Ogonis and using the UNEP report as a campaign tool,” he noted. Commenting on the protest, the Chief of Staff to Governor Amaechi, Chief Austin Okocha, said he was not sure of the identity of those who protested on Thursday neither did he know the reasons for their protest. “They (protesters) did not give us the time to know who they were. And I cannot say why they were protesting. They had to be stopped because they were moving too close to the Government House,” Okocha said. Meanwhile, there was a serious concern that one of the protesters who could not be identified as at press time was shot by the police and was rushed to the Braithwaite Memorial Hospital (BMH) for urgent medical attention. In its reaction, the Rivers State chapter of the PDP reiterated its earlier position that Governor Amaechi had never been favourably disposed towards the Ogoni people. The state chairman of the party, Felix Obuah, stated this while reacting to the alleged shooting at the protesting Ogoni youths at the Government House gate Port Harcourt. The PDP said it has been vindicated on its earlier caution that Amaechi was only using the UNEP report to incite the Ogonis against President Goodluck Jonathan and the Federal Government to his personal advantage as though he loves the Ogonis more than the President. However, the APC governorship aspirant, Dakuku Peterside, later on Thursday picked his nomination forms. There is tension also in Enugu State as a state High Court rules today on whether it has jurisdiction to entertain the suit challenging the results of the last ward congress of the PDP in the state. The court presided over by the Chief Judge of Enugu State, Innocent Umezulike, had reserved ruling last Friday, November 21, after hearing the motion brought by PDP, challenging the suit filed by one Charles Okafor, from Neke Oyofor Ward on November 10 on the grounds that no ward congress held on November 1 in his area where he was vying for the position of ward delegate. The court had earlier on Thursday, November 13, granted an interlocutory injunction in favour of the plaintiff, restraining PDP, the only defendant in the suit, from acting on any list or names purporting to be the list of delegates elected on November 1, 2014 at any ward or local government congress in Enugu State. Prior to the order by the Chief Judge, a Federal High Court in Abuja had upheld the ward congresses presided over by the Acting State Chairman, Elder David Ajah, and members of the PDP Ward Congress Committee for the state. Arguing the motion for the dismissal of the suit last Friday, November 21, counsel to PDP, Alex Iziyon (SAN) submitted that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit, which he said, was an abuse of court process and that his clients, PDP, was not properly served. But the counsel to the plaintiff, Sam Orji, who cited several authorities, argued that the suit was not an abuse of court process and urged the court to rather strike out the motion. Amidst the seeming confusion surrounding rulings of various Courts over the ward congresses and leadership of the PDP in Enugu State, a panel of lawyers in the state have declared that a close scrutiny of the decisions showed that their overall effect tilted in favour of the cause being pursued by the faction of the party loyal to Governor Sullivan Chime.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 23:22:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015