Siminalayi Fubara, the Governor
of Rivers State has claimed that his opponents tried to use a dynamite attack
to give the impression that the state is unsafe, and by extension make another
case for State of Emergency.
Daily Trust reports that amid
the ongoing Local Government Area crisis rocking the state, the All
Progressives Congress caretaker committee in Rivers had called for emergency rule
in Rivers.
Referring to the incident of
dynamite explosion during a protest by supporters of former local government
chairmen, the governor said God destroyed the plans of those behind the evil
plot.
The governor spoke when he
received on courtesy visit, a delegation of the Senate Committee on
Privatisation and Commercialisation, led by its Chairman, Senator Orji Uzo
Kalu, at Government House, Port Harcourt, on Wednesday.
He said, “As a matter of fact,
let me tell you, I know of everything that is happening. Yesterday (Tuesday),
they (protesters) were aware that you are in the State. So, there was an attempt
to create serious problem.
“In fact, there was a plan to
detonate dynamite at the Hotel Presidential because you people were there. But
this God that we serve, it happened that the man who was trying to do it,
detonated it but just few seconds after, it blew his hands off.
“The idea was that as you were
hearing state of emergency, it will be so that by the time they finish, when
you return to have your sitting tomorrow (Thursday), the debate will be from
somebody from this State who called you people to tell you not to come. He will
now raise issue of state of emergency, and say after all, distinguished
colleagues saw it happen while you were in Rivers State, that you saw what
happened.
“But you see, when you are with
God, even your own child who is planning evil, will go and tell somebody that,
God is with this man because he is clean, this is what my father is planning.
That is what is keeping us in this State.”
The Rivers State Governor
wondered why it seems that the law is silent or inactive to take its course
over offenders because somebody appears to be bigger than the law on the
agitation.
He clarified that he is not
fighting anybody but rather defending the state, and protecting supporters of
the interest of Rivers against those who feel that they own the life of others.
He said there is no governor in
Nigeria who can take 10 percent of the abuse railed at him by former local
government council chairmen.
He said, “Where on earth can
tenure of local government chairmen be elongated. You were a former Governor,
was it tried in your time. Even those of you that are Senators here, even in
your own states, has anyone tried this before?
“Is it that the Constitution
that governs Nigeria is different from the one that operates in Rivers State?
These are the very pertinent questions we should ask. Why should it be that
when it comes to the case of Rivers State, the law is always silent? Is it that
there is somebody bigger than Nigeria? That is the question I want you to go
back with.”
“I tell you, we know everything
that is happening, and you know it, everybody knows it. We should be bold
enough to look at the face of people and tell them the truth.
“I am not fighting anybody. If
I am fighting, people will know that I am fighting: My pattern will change.
What we are doing is to defend ourselves. We can’t just fold our hands. Only a
tree will be standing and somebody will come and cut it off.
“It doesn’t happen as a human
being. If you know that danger is coming, you shift. What we are doing is just
to protect ourselves. So, Distinguished Senators, I am not fighting anybody.
Somebody thinks or some people feel they own life. I don’t own life. The person
who own life is God. What we are doing here is to serve the people of Rivers
State because God has given us this opportunity.
“It doesn’t matter the channel
the opportunity came from. But the most important thing is God, and nobody
takes the place of God in anything,” he added.
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