…Denies Gov Wike’s
Sponsorship Of House of Representatives Committee’s Fact Finding Mission In
Ogoniland
The Chairman,
Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Bro. Felix Obuah,
says he is not in any way surprised over the attitude and statement by the All
Progressives Congress on the ongoing Fact- Finding mission by the House of
Representatives Committee on Army on the unjustifiable killing of innocent
persons in Ogoni communities on February 22 and 23, 2016, describing it as an
admittance by the APC that it actually deployed soldiers to Ogoniland and the
entire State during the March 19, 2016 re-run elections to do everything to
deliver its candidates in the elections.
The PDP
chairman observes that this attitude of the APC to a process aimed at giving
justice to the people of Ogoni, who have been made to suffer undue abuses, and killed for no just cause is quite
unfortunate and least expected of a party that ought to place the dignity of
human life above political ambition of individuals.
Bro Obuah
outrightly condemns the APC position as contained in the statement signed by
its State chairman, Mr. Davies Ikanya, saying rather than facing the real
issues and facts already revealed at the public hearing by the Committee in
Port Harcourt yesterday, Monday, April 18, 2016, which indict the Nigerian Army
and some APC candidates, including Mr. Barry Mpigi and Magnus Abe, on the
atrocities committed in Ogoniland, the APC is only making efforts to cover them
up and distort the stunning revelations by witnesses and members of victims’
families.
The APC is only
wasting its time making frivolous claims and blackmailing the Governor, Chief
Nyesom Wike, over a well intended undertaking by the National Assembly.
However, if the Governor would prefer sponsoring a course of justice for the
people, that to us, is a welcome development.
But we would
like to place on record that neither the Governor nor the PDP-led government in
the State is involved in any move to blackmail the Army out of Ogoniland as
alleged by the APC. We would continue to co-operate with all arms and
government institutions at all levels on a genuine mission to achieve justice,
peace and security in our State and the nation.
We therefore
wish to state that we owe no apology to Mr. Ikanya and the APC, if providing
the National Assembly Committee conducive environment and space to carry out
its legitimate assignment in the State is considered as a means of stampeding
the Nigerian Army out of Ogoniland before the conclusion of the outstanding
re-run elections process in the area.
Our
understanding of the fact-finding mission of the National Assembly Committee on
Army was to ensure justice rules over injustice and to reassure the affected
people that the government still upholds its constitutional function of
protection of lives and properties of the citizenry; the Ogoni not an
exception.
Obuah wonders
why the APC has still not realized that we are in a democracy, where free and
fair elections and respect for human rights ought to triumph, and that allowing
the Army in the streets and at polling, rather than in the barracks or at the
nation’s territorial areas, would amount to distracting them from concentrating
on their legitimate roles, including tackling the insurgency in the North East.
It is obvious
that the situation the APC today describes as ‘troubled parts of Ogoni’ is a
creation of its acts of desperation to win elections in the area.
While we
however, agree with the APC that both the House of Representatives and the Army
should endeavour to carry out their constitutional responsibilities, we
emphasize that such should be done with utmost regard for the fundamental
rights of defenseless citizens.
The questions
that beg for answers therefore are: why is the APC insisting on military
occupation of Ogoni during the period?
Why is the APC
interested in using the army in the re-run elections in Ogoni and the State at
large?
When did it
become wrong for a sitting Governor to host or welcome members or
representatives of government institutions and National Assembly Committees on
a fact- finding mission in the State? And why has the APC not considered the
lives of innocent Ogoni indigenes and residents wasted in the unwarranted
military raid in Ogoni communities important?
The PDP urges
the APC to cooperate with the House of Representatives Committee on Army on a
fact-finding mission in the State and stop blackmailing the Governor for what
he never did.
Signed:
Jerry
Needam
Special Adviser
on Media to
State PDP
Chairman, Bro. Felix Obuah
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
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