Rivers’ PDP Crisis: Assembly Adjourns Indefinitely






Protesters Storm Assembly Compound

Rivers State House of Assembly, yesterday, adjourned indefinitely following threats to arrest the Speaker, Hon Otelemaba Dan-Amachree and other key officers of the state legislature as well as the state Commissioner of Finance, Dr. Chamberlain Peterside.

Sequel to this, the speaker has appealed to the National Assembly to intervene in the crisis rocking the state’s chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He alleged that there were plans to declare a state of emergency in the state before Thursday, May 9, 2013 as

youths from five constituencies in the state, including Port Harcourt 3, Omuma, Ogu/Bolo, Obio/Akpor 1 and 2  stormed the House of Assembly complex in Port Harcourt demanding the removal of Governor ChibuikeRotimiAmaechi and the Speaker of the House.

However, there were disagreements between some of the protesters, especially those from Ogu/Bolo constituency, and their leaders over money promised them as some complained that N2, 000 given to them to be part of the protest was paltry.

Speaking to newsmen at the Assembly complex in Port Harcourt yesterday, Amachree said that the House would have reconvened if not for the plot to destabiliseit.

Represented by his Media Adviser, Jim UdedeOpikithe speaker said, “The House did not sit due tosecurity the situation within and outside the complex. The House was supposed to reconvene by 10.00 am, but before then, we saw some strange visitors in their thousands, who came here to stage a protest.



Amaechi in full control

In a related development, the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. IbimSeminatari has said Governor ChibuikeRotimiAmaechi is in full control of affairs despite plots by some forces to destabilise the state.

She said; “Well, first is that I do not know what is going on in Rivers state. I know that the governor of Rivers State, Governor Amaechi is in full control of the state. I know that there are no matters for concern in Rivers state.

 The commissioner said it would be impossible for only five members out of the 32-member State House of Assembly to succeed in impeaching Amaechi,

Reacting to the development in the State, Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, said that mounting impunity was sliding the country in the direction of danger and called for an urgent halt before matters get out of hand.



Soyinka cautions Jonathan on executive impunity

Soyinka identified three institutions responsible for these gathering dark clouds: federal might, the executive, and the police, a polite way of piling the blame on the desk of the presidency.

Professor Soyinka, in a statement,yesterday, blamed what he called the connivance of federal might and the abandonment of all moral scruples in executive disposition for this darkening national mood, and said

He said that if democracy would survive in the country, the Jonathan administration should look in the direction of the current escalation in federally inspired attack in Rivers State to calm the nerves of the police.

Mr. Soyinka has now warned the president not use executive impunity in Rivers.

“There is an opportunity in Rivers state to break this spiraling culture of executive impunity-manifested in both subtle and crude ways – that is fast becoming the norm in a post-military dispensation that fitfully aspires to be called a democracy,” Soyinka said.



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