Akanbi urges Jonathan, ex-presidents to curtail Rivers crisis

JULY 15, 2013  

President Goodluck Jonathan
| credits: File copy

A  former President of the Court of Appeal, retired Justice Mustapha Akanbi, on Sunday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that the crisis rocking Rivers State and its House of Assembly was amicably addressed to avoid the state snowballing  into anarchy.

He also appealed to former presidents, ex-heads of state and all men of goodwill in the country to intervene and prevent the political crisis from degenerating.

Akanbi, in an interview with our correspondent in Ilorin, described the fracas in Rivers State House of Assembly and a failed attempt by five out of 32 lawmakers in the House, to impeach the Speaker, Mr. Otelemba Amachree, as the speaker as “a democratic rot”.

His appeal was sequel to threats by the organised labour and civil society groups for  a showdown with the Federal Government if the crisis remains unresolved.

Akanbi said, “What is happening in Rivers State – the tense political environment in which we are now wallowing–  makes me sick and sad. I pray to Almighty God to give our political leaders the sense to know that we have not yet crossed the Rubicon.

“Whereas the President, as the head of government and our leader, has greater responsibility than all of us; but all men of goodwill, all former Presidents, all former heads of state, they should do something to check the rot in River State.”

Meanwhile, following the crisis rocking the state, a socio-political group in the South-South zone, known as the Niger Delta Watchdog, has called for the impeachment of the state Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi.

The group, in a statement by its Secretary, Mr. Sam Ebiye, blamed the governor for the brawl that took place in the chambers of the House of Assembly.

It pointed out that the people of the state had been saddled with poverty even with the huge sums of money accruing to the state as revenue.

The group called on the people of the state to break the shackles of servitude, which the administration had placed on them, even as it decried the acquisition of a jet when the state was grappling with high rate of unemployment.

But in his reaction on Sunday, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Otelemaba Amachree, dismissed the group’s claim, maintaining that Amaechi had not committed any impeachable offence.