The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) Reconciliation Committee on Rivers State Political Crisis, has assured that the matter would soon be amicably resolved to guarantee peace and harmony among parties involved.
The committee, therefore, appealed for peace, insisting that the lingering political imbroglio in the state poses a serious threat not only to Rivers State but to national stability and democratic conscience.
This remark was stated during the formal inauguration of the Committee in Port Harcourt. Chief Godwin Kanu Agabi SAN), a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, who is the chairman of the panel, delivered a keynote address centred on peace.
Rivers State has in recent months been gripped by a a seemingly intractable political face-off involving Governor Siminalayi Fubara, on one side and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and former Governor Nyesom Wike, with the Rivers State House of Assembly on the other.
The crisis, marked by legislative paralysis, rival power centres, and open political confrontation, has generated widespread national concern and prompted PANDEF— the umbrella socio-political organisation of the South-South—to intervene through a high-powered reconciliation committee.
In his key note address during the inauguration, Chief Agabi maintained that the assignment was a solemn responsibility that must be achieved.
He thanked God and the leadership of PANDEF, particularly the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Ambassador Godknows Igali, and elder statesman King Alfred Papapraye Diete-Spiff, whom he described as a symbol of sacrifice and unity in the Niger Delta.
Agabi warned that allowing the crisis to persist would undermine public confidence in governance and leadership. He said: “We cannot afford to stand by and do nothing or pass by on the other side as Rivers State struggles with issues of political power,” he said, drawing a vivid analogy, “Let the parties not be as the Clam and the Oyster who left the depths of the sea to fight on the shore, only to be picked up by a fisherman and made a meal of. May it not be so with Rivers State.
