NGF mum; PDP govs head for court over Rivers crisis
The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has not reacted to the developments. Its Director-General, Lateef Shittu, neither answered calls nor responded to a WhatsApp message sent to him yesterday by one of our reporters for comment on the matter. This is as governors elected under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have also vowed […]
The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has not reacted to the developments.
Its Director-General, Lateef Shittu, neither answered calls nor responded to a WhatsApp message sent to him yesterday by one of our reporters for comment on the matter.
This is as governors elected under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have also vowed to challenge the suspension of their colleague in court.
Governor Siminalayi Fubara, however, said he would face the situation with “wisdom, patience and unwavering faith in the democratic process.”
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In a statement yesterday by Bala Mohammed, the Bauchi State governor and chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, the PDP governors asked the president to accept that he has made a mistake and reverse the decision.
The forum accused the president of siding with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike.
“We stand in solidarity with Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the good people of Rivers State at this very difficult and trying moment of the state’s political history. There is no other time that our philosophy of ‘TOUCH ONE, TOUCH ALL’ is more apt than now.
“He who goes to the court of equity must go with clean hands. Mr President, your silence on the active role played by your Minister of the FCT in the Rivers impasse is golden and enabling. He has become a law unto himself because he was playing out your script. Now we know. This is totally unstatesmanlike, biased, and divisive.
“We state categorically that this unwarranted but premeditated attack on Rivers State and the Peoples Democratic Party and other opposition parties is today the greatest threat to democracy in our dear country.
“It is an ill wind that will blow no one any good. It is a dangerous course of action that will not only endanger our hard-won democracy but will exacerbate the crises in the nation, deepen mistrust, elevate security threats, destroy the economy, and our national cohesion and stability.
“The Forum completely aligns itself with the position of the NBA and promises to subject Section 305(3) of the Constitution to judicial interpretation. This authoritarian shenanigan is unacceptable and cannot stand.
“Mr President is therefore called upon to listen to wise counsel and the voice of reason, as well as accept that he made grievous mistakes and acted in haste, and reverse this atrocious and retrograde decision before it is too late,” the PDP’s governors said.