• Troublemakers want to destabilise state, says Obeh

The imposition of a state of emergency on Rivers State by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday, which led to the suspension of all democratic offices in the state and the appointment of a sole administrator, Ibok-Ete Ibas, to govern the state, has sparked mixed reactions from stakeholders.

While some commended the President for taking decisive action to prevent violence in the state, others argued that the decision was unnecessary and perceived it as a means of targeting the people of the South-South region.

‘President has saved the state from violence’
Commenting on the issue, Ken Robinson, the immediate national publicity secretary, Pan Niger Delta Forum from Rivers State, said that Port Harcourt is calm, and that the people are going about their businesses, while markets are open, saying that the decision of the president brought normalcy to the state.
He said: “This morning (Friday), I walked around and I saw women frying Akara and people buying for breakfast. Port Harcourt is normal.
“The people have isolated themselves from the problem. They were tired and some felt that the crisis was unnecessary.
“Those who were making noise and still making noise now are people who were benefiting from the crises, or their followers and their sycophant.
“The real people and the vast majority of Rivers State were tired of those crises and they were worried about the security and economic consequences.
“Now with the president’s intervention, people discuss at newspaper stands, beer parlour and street corners but life is normal.
“In every situation, there are profiteers who make profit from every conflict both internal and external interests.
“Some people call them conflicts between drivers and merchants. There are political predators who tried to take advantage of the crisis to advance their interests politically and to benefit from the resources of Rivers State.
“So, those kinds of people will not be happy and you can still see them talk on newspapers and televisions.
“They are not Rivers State people; but they pretend that they are talking in the interest of democracy.
“They are not working for the people of the state or for the interest of democracy.
“They are angry because their projections concerning their benefits from the state have been truncated by the president’s action.
“That is how I see it and that to a large extent is the reality. So, some people are not happy.
“They may tend to do something like protest as a demonstration for their disappointment.
“They were hoping that the National Assembly will not ratify the president’s proclamation but we commend the members of the National Assembly for their patriotism in ratifying President Tinubu’s proclamation in the interest of peace in Rivers State and in the Niger Delta, and to an extent national security and national economy.”
Robinson stated that the role that some persons and Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) should have played at that time should have been that of mediation to make peace and not to take sides.
He recalled that they went to see the President under the auspices of Concerned Citizens of Rivers State.
“We made a publication calling for total peace in Rivers State and commended the President for his second intervention and appealed to members of the state House of Assembly, the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike and Governor Siminalayi Fubara to abide by the terms of agreement to foster peace, but all to no avail,” he added.
According to him, the inability of the people of Rivers State to protest after the imposition of a state of emergency on the state is a demonstration that the people themselves were tired of what was going on and that they are tired of “ridiculing of the state by the actions of the warring parties and are worried that the resources of the people of Rivers State were being wasted.
“So, they have welcomed the situation hoping that normalcy will return within the six months.
“They believe that total peace will be restored and democratic institutions and structures will be reinstated in Rivers State and our call to Nigerians, particularly the good people of Rivers State, is that they should ensure that normalcy returns to the state soon,” he said.

Trouble makers want to destabilise Rivers -Obeh
Also speaking, Emmanuel Obeh, a journalist and an indigene of Rivers State, said that the state is peaceful and that it has always been peaceful since Siminalayi Fubara became governor.
“The trouble makers wanted to destabilise the state, but they didn’t succeed, yet they wanted a state of emergency to be declared in the state.
“The fact is that the people are quite surprised by the action of President Tinubu and members of the National Assembly.
“The situation did not actually call for the declaration of a state of emergency because even the political opponents were not engaging themselves in physical fights
“There was no tension at all; we were just waiting for the political actors to sort out their differences.
“The political difference between Wike’s faction and Fubara’s faction has not affected governance in any form.
“In fact there has been no tension in the state since Fubara became governor. The old tension that people used to experience in Rivers State disappeared.
“Politicians have forgotten factions or party lines and they were living together. Of course, there were arguments, but there was no need for the declaration of a state of emergency,” he said.
He then accused Wike of stoking fire so that people would fight.
“When there was a reception at Kalabori, you saw how Wike castigated Ijaw people.
“He decided to come to Ijaw land to attend the reception even when the local community said no.
“He came to cause provocation. They are still investigating the blowing of oil installations in the state, but this didn’t necessitate a state of emergency.
“Even the conduct of members of the state house of assembly showed that they didn’t want peace.
“When the governor wanted to meet with them, they refused to meet with him and they were issuing all kinds of ultimatums just to elicit reactions from the people
“People didn’t react because they saw it as a political disagreement between them and that they should sort it out among themselves for the good of the people of the state.
“So, now we know the problem is that Wike and the President were united and they wanted to take over the budget of the state.
“I think the whole thing is about the money of Rivers people,” he said.
Obeh stressed that the problem started in 2023 when the governor was preparing the budget.
He said that at that time, they wanted him to build in their money and that when he didn’t do that, they moved immediately to impeach him and he reacted, saying that when they went to see the president for settlement, one of the things he said was that he should submit the budget to them.
“So, it’s all about the money. You know he was the accountant general of the state so he knows the money the state owns.
“He came out to reveal the difference between what used to be declared as Internally Generated Revenue of Rivers State and what is the true situation of things now.
“The difference was running into about N12 to N15 billion a month, which was not declared and that money used to go just like that.
“So, we want to think that as a patriotic indigene of Rivers State, not just governor, he felt this was too much an amount to be taken away from the state to private coffers and he just couldn’t take it again,” he added.
While saying that the economy of Rivers State is almost as developed as that of Lagos, he said that the President wanted to develop Lagos, where he has control and destroys the South-South, including Rivers; there’s no tension or problem in the city.
“The administrator has come and nobody is on the streets demonstrating. Those who are opposing and expressing themselves may be at press conferences and they are issuing statements to the media.
“Nobody is standing out there or close to the administrator himself per se, we are adopting a kind of wait and see attitude even though it is clear to everybody in the state that the sole administrator has been appointed by the opponent of the government,” he said.

Ex-agitator: They are blackmailing Fubara
Edmund Ebiware an ex-agitator from Bayelsa State, has also said that it’s a pitiable situation that they found themselves in the Niger Delta, adding that it is not about Rivers State or Fubara, but that it’s about the Ijaw nation in general and by extension, the Niger Delta Region
“What is happening is that they just want to give a dog a bad name just to kill it.
“Accusing Fubara of trying to foment trouble in peaceful Rivers State is blackmail. This was a stage managed thing to make it look as if there is violence in the, when there is none.
“All the protests were peaceful, as there was no loss of life. So you can see that already the presidency has taken a stand. They are supporting the FCT Minister, Wike. How will you be a fair judge when you have taken side with a party?
“We have not put a military man in the helms of affairs. When we let them taste power, they will leave their primary duty to join politics.
“We are gradually going back to the dark days of the military junta. We pray it doesn’t happen.

“IYC, INC, PANDEF have tried their best, but we need some stakeholders in the Niger Delta to speak out.
“It is time former president Goodluck Jonathan takes a position and addresses us. He is our political leader in the Niger Delta.
“We expect him to come out and address us so that we know the direction we are moving because two wrongs cannot make a right. We want peace in the Niger Delta.
“We cannot cause mayhem that will cause disability in our region. We want our pipelines to be safe and we have our son that is taking care of the pipelines, Government Tompolo, we can’t jeopardise what he is doing. We should not get to a point of lawlessness. That is what we want, but what is happening can cause lawlessness.
“Mr President should review the imposition of a state of emergency on the state. Governor Fubara was duly elected by the people, but now they have taken power from the people and this is wrong. It won’t take us anywhere.
“Every reasonable person should condemn the imposition of a state of emergency on Rivers State. It is uncalled for. We don’t need it. We don’t need to go back to the doom days of militancy. We need peace,” he said.