BORROWING: Stop Attacking Wike, PDP Chieftain Tells APC

Prince Emma Anyanwu, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who spoke in Port Harcourt, Rivers State yesterday, has described as petty, the attacks by the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state against recent borrowing by the Rivers State Government.

Anyanwu said that the Governor Wike led state government had no choice but to borrow to execute ongoing projects in the state since it met an empty treasury on assumption of office on May 29 last year.

“The government inherited nothing from the past administration. So, the governor has to borrow to deliver his campaign promises since there is a drop in the allocation coming to the state. The former government awarded contracts everywhere and abandoned them.

“Go to Borokiri and see what the Nyesom Wike government has done. Nobody knew that roads in Borokiri could ever be constructed. But Wike has done the wonders. It is the same story on Rumuolumeni Road. People were trekking miles to their houses after parking their vehicles miles away from their houses because of the bad roads. But now, they all drive to their houses because Wike fixed the roads. He has done several roads since he came on board. You hear people say that Wike has done in one year what Amaechi could not do in eight years.”

He also commended Governor Wike for the street lights on several major roads in the state, stressing that the state government was already addressing the issue of insecurity in partnership with security agencies.

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Buhari Approves BoT For Ogoniland Cleanup

The Minister of Environment, Mrs Amina Mohammed, in a statement by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Bukar Hassan have announced that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a 13-member Governing Council and 10-member Board of Trustees for the cleanup of Ogoniland in Rivers.

The minister speaking in Abuja on Saturday, said the structures would ensure inclusiveness, accountability, transparency and sustainability of the exercise.

Mohammed acknowledged the concerns raised by stakeholders on the perceived slow pace of the clean up, saying “Nigerians have a right to voice their concerns”, but called for patience.

“We have responsibility to deliver. The launch was the first step in a 30-year journey. We continue to make strides toward the implementation.

“We ask for patience as we lay solid foundations for the cleanup.
The context is complex and stakeholders are diverse. All must be taken along”, Mohammed said.

President Buhari inaugurated the clean up on June 2 at Bodo in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers.

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Rivers Govt To Honour Peace Agreement Brokered By Police, DSS —Wike

Mr. Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State governor, has said that he will implement the resolutions of the peace meeting he signed in Abuja recently under the watch of the Police and the Department of State Security, DSS.

Speaking to members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at a rally in Degema area of the state, Wike said he agreed to meet with Amaechi because of his commitment to peace and the need to make sacrifices for the development of the state.

Wike, who made this known through his spokesman, Simeon Nwakaudu, pledged to implement the resolutions of the deal brokered by the police and the Department of State Services, DSS, for the peaceful conduct of rerun election in the state.

He said: “I was at the peace meeting because we love peace and want the state to move forward. I signed an undertaking on your behalf that we are prepared for INEC's credible, free and fair elections.

“It is not in our interest to have a crisis because we will be the losers.”

RIVERS POLL: Wike, Amaechi Meet For Peace Ahead Of Rivers Election

The acting Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and the Director-General of Department of State Services, DSS, Alhaji. Musa Daura, along with the two major players in the politics of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, held a crucial meeting to chart the path to peace in the state before, during and after the re-run elections.

During the meeting which deliberated on the overall need to have peaceful, free and fair election, Governor Wike and Amaechi resolved to be irrevocably committed to lasting peace and vouched to play the game by the rules.

They also agreed to prevail on their teaming supporters to adhere to their commitment to peace and security in the state.

In addition, the two major stakeholders agreed to convene another meeting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, aimed at solidifying the commitment to peace reached in the meeting, which is a prelude to the roadmap that will usher a permanent and lasting peace in Rivers State.

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RIVERS 4 MONTHS INCONCLUSIVE ELECTION: INEC Messing Up Democracy - Fayose

Mr. Ayodele Fayose, the Ekiti State Governor, has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission is messing up democracy in the country with its handling of elections under the President Muhammadu Buhari government.

Fayose described the postponement of the Rivers State rerun elections and the alleged manipulation of the Imo North Senatorial election as another dangerous signal of what Nigerians should expect in 2019, wondering how INEC that could not conduct elections conclusively in just one state would be able to conduct elections in the entire country in 2019.

The governor, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said that “democracy in Nigeria is being threatened by INEC and this should call for national and international reflection.”

“Lovers of democracy in Nigeria and the entire world should be worried that after conducting inconclusive elections in Rivers State in March this year, INEC postponed the rescheduled elections twice.

“INEC had on June 20, after a meeting with relevant stakeholders, fixed June 30 as the new date for the conclusion of the poll.

“However, the electoral commission postponed the elections for the second time, claiming reports of violence, and one wonders how INEC will be able to conduct elections in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in 2019 if it has not been able to conclude elections in Rivers State in four months!”

He said, “Nigerians had thought issues of violence, ballot snatching and electoral fraud had been put behind them only for them to be brought back frontally by the Buhari’s government.

“President Buhari should ask himself if he would have been elected if the system then did not allow free and fair elections. The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, should also be worried if there would have been an INEC to head if the 2015 elections had been inconclusive.”

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INEC Under Yakubu Should Pack And Go - Rivers Govt

The Rivers state government through the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr Austin Tam-George in a statement has called for dissolution of the Independent National Electoral commission, INEC under the leadership of Professor Mahmood Yakubu.

The government accused the commission of allegedly conniving with the leadership of the All Progressive Congress, APC to postpone the rerun elections slated for Saturday indefinitely, he further enjoined the international community to assist in mounting what it termed diplomatic pressure on the federal government to give Nigerians a credible electoral body.

His words, “The government of Rivers State and people of Rivers State are shocked by the bare-faced collusion between INEC and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to subvert democracy in the state”.

“It is completely unacceptable that Rivers State would continue to be denied full representation in the National Assembly due to the incompetence and malpractices orchestrated by INEC”.

"We call on the presidency and the National Assembly to act urgently in the national interest to disband INEC as presently constituted, for its incompetence and open partisanship."

“We call on the international community to initiate and maintain diplomatic pressure on the federal government, which continues to frustrate the independence of INEC and the evolution of democratic diversity in Nigeria”.

“The people of Rivers state will continue to resist and defeat the medieval authoritarianism of the APC”.

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APC Protests Rivers Assembly’s Refusal To Swear In Members-Elect

Members of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, numbering about 2000 persons, staged a peaceful protest to the Rivers State House of Assembly complex on Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, demanding the swearing-in of Victoria Nyeche representing Port Harcourt Constituency 1 and Andrew Miller representing Opobo/Nkoro constituency who were elected on the platform of APC as members of the Assembly.

However, Mr Felix Obuah, the Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, has accused the APC of embarking on the protest ostensibly to scuttle the re-run elections in the state.

The PDP chieftain, in a statement in Port Harcourt, said: “It is now very clear that the APC has devised a new strategy to put the rescheduled re-run elections in the state perpetually on hold to make up for its unpreparedness.

“The ploy include cooking up fallacies and spurious allegations, and using such as basis for state-wide protests against the July 30, 2016 concluding re-run elections in the remaining eight local areas of the state.”

LADY SHOT IN THE MOUTH IN ALUU COMMUNITY, RIVERS STATE (GRAPHIC PHOTOS)

Before and old photo of the unnamed damsel

  

The increasing recurrence of unimaginable atrocities in Rivers state continues to prick trepidation in the hearts of many Nigerians.

 

According to reliable reports, the pretty lady in the above picture was shot last night in Aluu community in Rivers state by unknown gunmen.