20th October, 2013
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the reported plot to
abduct, blackmail and force Gov. Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers to resign
from office, calling it the last desperate act of those who are bent
on getting rid of the Governor at all costs.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its Interim National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said that the
plot, which was exposed by the Rivers Peoples Forum, should be taken
very seriously, against the background of a similar occurrence in the
past and the outcry by Gov. Amaechi that his life is in danger.
”Anyone who thinks this alarm by the Rivers Peoples Forum is
outlandish should remember what happened to then Anambra State
Governor Chris Ngige, who was abducted and rough handled in 2003 in
what is undoubtedly the most egregious violation of democratic
institutions in our country’s history.
”The instigators and perpetrators of the crisis in Rivers are keenly
aware that they are running out of options. Their
impeachment plan has been foiled by the take over of the legislative functions of the Rivers State House of Assembly’s functions by the the National Assembly, while their plan to declare a state of
emergency in the state has also failed, against the lack
of support for such act by the National Assembly.
”This is the reason for this last desperate act by an
increasingly-desperate Presidency, which may not exclude a final
solution. We are therefore, for the umpteenth time, calling on civil
society and human rights organizations, opinion leaders
and indeed all lovers of democracy and believers in constitutional
rule to intervene to stop the runaway culture of impunity
in Rivers State,” it said
APC said it is instructive that a day after the Rivers Peoples Forum
exposed the plot against Gov. Amaechi, the so-called chair of the PDP
in Rivers, Felix Obuah, set out to prepare the grounds for the
devilish plot when he called a press conference to deliver a harangue
against Gov. Amaechi whom he accused of ”insulting and dragging the
names of President GoodLuck and the First Lady, Dame (Dr) Patience
Jonathan to the mud”.
”There can be no better confirmation of the evil plot than this,”
the party said.
It also warned that the madness in Rivers State, which is being
carried out under the watch of the Presidency, which has made the
state’s Police Commissioner the de facto Governor with a clear
instruction to neutralize the elected Governor,
should not be seen as an isolated incident, but as a part of a grand
plot and a test run for 2015.
”As we have said before, the crisis in Rivers is being deliberately
orchestrated to test the waters ahead of the 2015 elections,
with the belief that if the perpetrators get away with the massive
impunity in the state, it can then be extended to other
states before 2015 to ensure that the polls will be everything but
free, fair and transparent, and also to satisfy the yearnings of a
President who is obsessed with winning re-election.
”The daylight rape of democracy in Delta state on Oct. 12th by those
who prevented elections from holding, only to announce
concocted results, is also part of this plot. The new strategy is to
use security agencies, especially the police and the military, to
undermine democracy. We have not seen the last of these dangerous
games, hence the need for all to be vigilant,” APC said