The All Progressives Congress (APC) has blamed President Goodluck
Jonathan for last week's alleged blockade of the Rivers State
Government House by the police in the state.
The charge came just as APC leaders in the South-east met at the
weekend to strategise on how to undertake membership mobilisation
and harmonisation of its operations in the zone.
The Vice-Chairman of APC in South-east, Chief Anyim Nyerere, who
spoke to THISDAY yesterday, said apart from opening state party
offices in all the five South-eastern states, the leaders had agreed
on guidelines on the harmonisation of party structures in the five
states.
In a statement issued Sunday, by its National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the police could not have had the
temerity to act the way they did in blocking the Rivers State
Governor, Chibuike Amaechi and his guests from his residence if they
were not promised support from higher authorities.
It alleged that the president's unbridled disposition towards cheap
political vendetta may have pushed him to commit impunity and
unconstitutionality perhaps more than any other president in the
history of the country.
The party said it would resist any attempt to turn Nigeria into a police state.
It cautioned that giving presidential backing to the police or any
national institution at all to commit impunity and violate the
nation's constitution was the fastest means to destroy such
institutions and erode public confidence in them.
''In the case of the police, what is happening in Rivers State is
sending a wrong signal to the polity concerning the role of the force
in 2015.
"How can a malleable police be trusted to be neutral and to help
ensure the conduct of a free and fair election - with the president as
a candidate - in 2015?'' APC queried.
The party said the Nigeria Police Force under President Jonathan had
increasingly become a lawless force whose allegiance was only to the
president and not to the constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, a police force that had become a tool in the hands of the
president to harass, intimidate, arrest and persecute all his real and
perceived political enemies.
''Since the onset of the President Jonathan-inspired political logjam
in Rivers State and the implosion of his party, the PDP, the president
has been depending on the police to shore up his dwindling political
fortune. The insubordination of the Rivers State Police Commissioner,
Mbu Joseph; the police-sponsored fracas in the state House of
Assembly; the assault on the five visiting governors by thugs working
under the direction and protection of the Commissioner of Police and
the unlawful occupation of the new PDP secretariats at Abuja and Lagos
are clear examples.
''President Jonathan, however, should be told in clear and unambiguous
language that Nigerians will resist all machinations by him to turn
Nigeria into a police state,'' it said.
The APC also said those who have been struggling to distance the
president from the crisis in Rivers were being clever by half, since
it was clear to all Nigerians that the president was the puppeteer in
the crisis from day one, hence it had festered despite all efforts to
end it.
Also, a leading socio-political organisation of all Rivers people both
at home and in the diaspora, the Rivers' Peoples Forum (RPF), has said
the presidency was responsible for the many political travails of
Amaechi and any harm that would befall the governor.
Rising from a general executive meeting in Port Harcourt, at the
weekend, the forum in a statement signed by its President, Charles
Bekwele, condemned the Thursday night police blockage of the
governor's convoy from accessing Government House.
The forum described the blockage as one attack too many on the person
and Office of the Governor.
The forum also described as shameful and a big insult to the
sensibilities of Nigerians, the comments by the Bamaga Tukur-led
faction of the party on the incident.
"This current attack on the office and person of the governor is one
attack too many. They have grounded the official plane of the Rivers
State Government. They have withdrawn some of Amaechi security aides,
thereby exposing him to harm and danger. And all these are been
orchestrated by certain interests within the presidency.
"The presidency has been consistent in its harassment, intimidation
and attack of Amaechi. They are doing this because of 2015. They
believe Amaechi won't support President Jonathan 2015 election.
"But this attacks on the person and office of the governor must stop
now. The Presidency must stop using the apparatus of State to harass,
intimidate and attack an elected governor.
"We want to alert Nigerians, the international community that if any
thing happens to Amaechi, if any harm befalls the governor, the
Presidency should be held responsible," the Forum added.
On the comments made by the Tukur-led faction of the PDP on the
police blockage, the RPF described their comments as most unfortunate.
Meanwhile, as part of moves by APC to make in-roads into the
South-east considered the strong of the PDP, the party has constituted
state harmonisation committees made up the chairman and secretaries of
each of the parties involved in the merger.
According to the South-east Vice-Chairman of APC, Nyerere, the key
function of the humanisation committee is to organise and coordinate
the membership registration and subsequently the congresses.
"We are to commence immediately with the membership mobilisation,
prior to the registration of members which is to start in October.
Though the party will welcome every Nigerian who may want to join,
including the members of New PDP, it will guard against any attempt to
hijack the platform, " he said.
THISDAY gathered that at the meeting of the South-east APC
stakeholders held in Owerri, the Imo State capital, the state
Governor, Rochas Okorocha, pledged to assist in mobilising support for
the party in the zone, including backing the party's candidate in the
November 16 Anambra State governorship election.
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