All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the reported plot to abduct, blackmail and force Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State 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 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 Governor 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 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 organisations, 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 Governor Amaechi, the so-called chairman of the PDP in Rivers State, Felix Obuah, set out to prepare the grounds for the devilish plot when he called a press conference to deliver a harangue against Governor 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 neutralise 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 October 12 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.
