The governor of Rivers State, Mr Siminalayi Fubara said the supporters of his estranged successor, Mr Nyesom Wike, attempted to bomb the Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt as part of the grand plot to justify their call for a declaration of a state of emergency.
The governor made the declaration when he played host to the senate committee on privatisation and commercialisation, led by its chairman, Mr Orji Kalu, to the government house in Port Harcourt yesterday.
Speaking at the meeting with the visiting lawmakers, he said the protesters and their sponsors were aware that the senators were lodging at the Hotel Presidential, yet, attempted to detonate an explosive device near the facility in order to strengthen the call for the declaration of a state of emergency in the state.
“As a matter of fact, let me tell you, I know of everything that is happening. Yesterday (Tuesday), they (the protesters) were aware that you are in the state. So, there was an attempt to create serious problem.
“In fact, there was a plan to detonate dynamite at the Hotel Presidential because you people were there. But this God that we serve, it happened that the man who was trying to do it, detonated it but just few seconds after, it blew his hands off.
“The idea was that as you hear state of emergency, it will be so that by the time they finish, when you return to have your sitting tomorrow (Thursday), the debate will be from somebody from this state who called you people to tell you not to come.
“He will now raise issue of state of emergency, and say after all, distinguished colleagues saw it happen while you were in Rivers State, that you saw what happened.
“But you see, when you are with God, even your own child who is planning evil, will go and tell somebody that, God is with this man because he is clean. This is what my father is planning. That is what is keeping us in this State.”
Fubara said the whole protest was about the tenure of local government area chairmen and wondered which state in Nigeria had had the tenure of elected council officials elongated before.
“Where on earth can the tenure of local government chairmen be elongated? You were a former governor (referring to Senator Kalu). Was it tried in your time? Even those of you that are senators here, even in your own states, has anyone tried this before?
“Is it that the Constitution that governs Nigeria is different from the one that operates in Rivers State? These are the very pertinent questions we should ask.
“Why should it be that when it comes to the case of Rivers State, the law is always silent? Is it that there is somebody bigger than Nigeria? That is the question I want you to go back with,” he said.
He added that he and his supporters were not waging war against anybody but they were only defending themselves.
“I am not fighting anybody. If I am fighting, people will know that I am fighting. My pattern will change. What we are doing is to defend ourselves. We can’t just fold our hands. Only a tree will be standing and somebody will come and cut it off.
“Only a tree will be standing and somebody will come and cut it off. It doesn’t happen as a human being. If you know that danger is coming, you shift. What we are doing is just to protect ourselves. So, distinguished senators, I am not fighting anybody,” he said.
In his remarks, Kalu said they were in the state to carry out oversight duties on some projects.
He commended the governor for his love for peace, determination to offer quality governance and keep pace with providing the right climate to engender economic growth to all residents in the State.
The former governor of Abia State also called on Wike to sheath the sword and call his supporters to order as a commitment to fostering peace and putting the interest of the State above all considerations.
“I want to admire you, your deputy and your team for the good things you are doing in the State, but it is good to have peace.
“I want to thank you because you look like a very peaceful man. Your face shows a peaceful man.
“Leadership is a very big burden. It is not a sweet potato. It is not anywhere where you can see rice and beans. On the street of Rivers, everyone is saying that the governor and the former governor are quarreling.
“We want to plead with you, continue to hold your people back because if your people demonstrate like the other people, we will have a state of anarchy, and it is not good to have anarchy,” he said.
