Rivers Assembly Crisis: Group Supports Damagum’s Call for Bye-election

•PCF chastises party’s NWC, governors

Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

A political pressure group under the aegis of Simplified Rivers Elders Forum (SIREF) has aligned with the Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Umar Damagum, on his call for bye-election to occupy 27 seats of the members of Rivers State House of Assembly who allegedly defected from PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

This comes as a pro-PDP group, the PDP Collectives Forum (PCF), rebuked the PDP Governors Forum and the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) for the alleged false impression of equating their selfish interest with the greater interest of the party.

In Rivers State in the past months, the 27 lawmakers led by the Speaker Martin Amaewhule have been in a legal battle with the state government and other groups over the alleged defection.

The lawmakers went to court claiming that they never defected from PDP despite their alleged public show of defection to the opposition APC, following the misunderstanding that ensued between the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike and Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

Speaking during a press conference held in Port Harcourt, yesterday, the Rivers Elders Forum lauded the PDP national chairman on his recent position in the political crisis in Rivers.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Prof. Solar Obianime said, “We align ourselves with the recent position of the Amb. Umar Damagum, Acting National Chairman of PDP, stating that the seats of the pro-Wike lawmakers be filled in line with the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.”

The group convened by Ikay Thomas Amadi, also disassociated from the position of the state chapter of PDP on the political crisis, noting “the need for a disciplined political party” in the country.

The spokesperson of the group recalling the incident that led to the lawmakers battling to own back the seats from the court, alleged that Amaewhule-led members of the state House of Assembly planned a political coup against a sitting governor.

Obianime recalled that, “One year ago, a group of 27 lawmakers decided to engage themselves in a political coup, to impeach a sitting governor, our governor, the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara,” saying that, “After the coup had failed, the President intervened.”

He said, “Even before the President intervened, these same lawmakers decided that they will decamp from the party and vehicle that brought them to power. Some local government chairmen also took it upon themselves to become cowboys who would address the press and insult the person and office of the governor.

“What they wanted was to push us and Rivers State to a state of anarchy, but God forbid, it did not happen. After the President intervened with a 10-point agenda, to be honest, some of us as elders were not comfortable with the agendas. But because our governor, our leader, decided that he will give peace a chance, we all lined up believing in him.”

Commending the Fubara for maintaining peace all through the heat of the political crisis, the statesmen insisted that “the Nigerian Police must investigate and not sweep under the carpet the attempt by convoy of the Nigerian Police from Bayelsa State to steal Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) electoral materials meant for the recent local government election in the middle of the night.”

Meanwhile, the group, PDP Collectives Forum (PCF) in a statement signed by its National Convener, Michael Omini, noted that the soul and conscience of the PDP still reside in the purview of the founding fathers of the party.

The statement noted that, “members of the PDP should not be worried about whatever decision was taken at the PDP Governors Forum and NWC meeting in Jos. They are all losers and do not mean well for the party.”

According to the group, while the National Working Committee of the PDP and the governors of the party continue to dash the hopes and expectations of party members across the country on account of how they make the PDP lay prostrate to the manipulation of the ruling APC, “members of our great party must know that these governors are out there for they own inordinate ambitions, and care less about the health of the party or the interest of members of the party.”

The statement reads further: “We do not have confidence and trust in the PDP governors as they lack the courage and guts to take any meaningful decisions that will move the party, and indeed, the country forward.

“They are not honest with themselves and the party, they have an inordinate deal with the ruling APC and what they are up to is about their tenure protection.

“We however wish to remind them that they are only riding on a tiger’s back and sooner or later they will end up in its belly.

“They need to learn from the experiences of what became the end of those who sold the soul of the PDP away in Lagos State. The same disgraceful end awaits all of them in the nearest future.

“Be that as it may, we will not sit idly by and let them mortgage the future of the party that the founding fathers birthed and which we have also worked hard to build.

“The truth is that majority of the party members across the states are still with the party because of the founding fathers like Atiku Abubakar, Sule Lamido, Prof. Jerry Gana and a host of others. When the people talk of the PDP days, they refer to the days of these founding fathers, not these current buccaneers who only wear the mask of the PDP colours but whose actions and inclinations are more like the oppressive ruling APC party.

“For the avoidance of any doubt, no serious loyal party members will follow Wike and Damagun to the trap that  APC/Tinubu are using the current National Working Committee of the PDP to ensnare the party.

“The current NWC functions more like undertakers of the PDP who are desperate to bury the party alive in exchange for their filthy lucre.

“The days ahead will redefine the future of Nigeria’s politics whether we are a multi-party flourishing democracy or we end up as a cosmetic one-party system. Certainly, the terms of that aspiration cannot be left to these clowns who are eager to trade the future of our democracy for their sordid political agenda.

“These governors and NWC led by Damagun are testing the resolve of the people. It does not matter to them how poorly the APC has managed the country and how the people are groaning under the weight of harsh economic and security conditions in the country. What matters to them is to keep the PDP away from being a viable opposition, but as a corruption milling machine that continues to feed their greed.

“This is not the spirit of the PDP, a party that stood firm to fight military dictatorship and was able to restore democratic governance in our country.

“The PDP and its founding fathers, many of whom are still politically active today, will not allow the party to become a sleaze bag for some unscrupulous people.”