27th May, 2013
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Governor Chibuike Amaechi has described his suspension from the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP by the National Working Committee as a political witch hunt by both the Presidency and the Party and an attempt to show the world that the party is lawless.
He said he has been accused of not reinstating the chairman of the Obio-Akpor Local Government, who was not suspended by him, but by the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The Assembly, he said, was investigating the suspended chairman over allegations of corruption. The matter is already before the court.
A bewildered Amaechi wondered if PDP by suspending him from the party was telling the world it condoned corruption or whether the party was by its action sending abroad the signal that the rule of law should not be obeyed.
Amaechi revealed that the meeting of the PDP NWC that suspended him, was convened as early as 7 a.m today “at a time most people were yet to take their bath,” with the meeting not affording him a fair hearing.
Governor Amaechi spoke Monday night while having an interaction with Rivers youths at Government House as part of Children’s Day celebration.
He regretted that because his political opponents want to fight him politically “they are sending criminals who were killing our youths and raping our women and robbing our people to cause mayhem after my government chased them away from the state.”
“Today, the labour union shut down the state protesting the sealing of Obio-Akpor council by the Police. We were transferring patients from government hospitals to private hospitals.Yet the federal government don’t care about the fate of five million Rivers people.”
He reminded those hunting him that they did the same to him by denying him his mandate for 10 months in 2007 but he embarked on fasting and prayed and got his mandate back.
Amaechi restated that the NGF election was transparently conducted, as all the Governors voted and votes were counted in the full glare of every person and Governor Jonah Jang scored 16 votes and he scored 19 votes.
“You will see it on the internet when the Governors were voting, all the governors were there and you will also see the counting. We (Governors) agreed to voting, and all the governors voted, so any governor who said he didn’t vote is lying against the nation because all of us are on oath to govern properly, so we should not lie. Every governor voted. You will see the video. If we leaders of Nigeria today are refusing to accept the results of a properly organized election supervised by the Director-General of the Governors’ Forum… And somebody brought a paper that was signed in April. If you check that list, it was signed in April and you brought it on May 24th after the Governors had finished voting their chairman into office. That list was not part of our election. There is a rumour that they want to go to court to stop me as NGF chairman. We are ready to meet them in court but they should not go through the backdoor to get an order ”, Amaechi said.
“I want to say that the way these people at the federal level are acting, they may come for my life, so when you pray, please pray for me.”
Amaechi urged Rivers people to brace up for a long drawn battle which he is ready to lead against those who are anti-democratic and take pride in trampling on rights of the people.
Amaechi was not the only person who commented on his suspension. Dakuku Peterside, member, National Assembly, representing Opobo/Nkoro federal constituency described the the suspension of the governor by his party, the PDP a major setback to Nigeria’s quest for true democracy.
“It’s a huge blow to democracy and fundamentally violates the rights of an individual to associate freely, to vote and be voted for in any democratic process.‘’Dakuku said.
The NGF is not an extension of PDP, he said, it is not governed by the constitution of the PDP .
” In any case, the suspension of Amaechi is a major impediment to PDP’s future as a party because Amaechi is one of the shining stars of the party “.
He said the action of the PDP working committee as an ignoble one,and one that clearly sign posts what to expect in 2015, where divergent views will not be tolerated.
“This is dangerous to the development of democracy and practice of federalism,” he added.