You Can’t Win All Fights, Don’t Destroy Rivers State – Fubara Cautions Wike

• Says we must protect and preserve our dear state for posterity 

Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has challenged his predecessor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, to refrain from actions capable of destroying the oil-rich state so that history will not judge him harshly.

According to Governor Fubara, the time has also come for the immediate past governor to let go of his selfish desire to maintain a stranglehold on Rivers State and allow peace to reign.

Speaking on Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today, on Monday, the governor said there was no regret in conducting the Local Government Councils’ election last Saturday despite the resistance by Wike’s men Friday in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Governor Fubara, who urged his predecessor to let go the desire to perpetually pull power strings in the South-South state, said; “I have all the guts to do these things (LG polls)”, adding that all Nigerians know he has no hands in the destruction of local government secretariats in Rivers State.

The governor claimed to have kept all “understanding” he had with the FCT Minister to ensure peace reigns in the state but the issue has continued to escalate, noting that; “There is nothing I have not done on this earth for peace to reign. I can tell you the number of times I have knelt to beg that let’s allow this issue to go. I have done everything”.

On what message he would deliver to the FCT Minister in the likelihood of their meeting, Governor Fubara said; “I’ll tell him (Wike) that it has gotten to a point where he needs to let go. We need peace in this state. You don’t necessarily need to win all the fights; at times, you just let go for the sake of the good people of Rivers State and the love that you have always professed for the state.

“We need to secure the state. Fubara will leave tomorrow. Who knows who is going to come? It might be through him or another person but we need to secure the state.”

‘No Need To Destroy Rivers’
For Governor Fubara,  the election periods are over and it is time to deliver good governance to the Rivers people, and the FCT Minister should therefore give peace a chance.

He further stated thus; “What I am appealing is: that everyone should sheathe their swords. Even to the minister, my oga (my boss), there is no need to destroy this state. He (Wike) once ruled this state and the state was the envy of every other state.

“Another person is there now, what we need now is the support, after four years or eight years, who knows? I will also leave and someone else will take over. That should be the spirit. When it comes to the election period, you can fight and do whatever but now is the time for governance. We need all the support.

The governor said the alarm was sounded on Sunday evening when swearing in 23 newly elected Local Government chairpersons in the state that some aggrieved political actors had mobilised to destabilise the peace of the state on Monday.

As of press time, Ikwerre, Eleme, and Emuoha Local Government Secretariats were among those set ablaze by some hoodlums suspected to be loyalists of the immediate past Governor Wike.

This is as President Bola Tinubu has since ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun to secure the local government secretariats in the oil-rich state amid the violent clashes that erupted in at least four local government areas, with parts of the buildings in Eleme, Ikwerre, and Emohua council premises set ablaze by rampaging political hoodlums.

Also, gunshots were fired sporadically in Ahoada East to resist the new council officials, even as political watchers insisted that it is curious the burning of Local Government secretariats came on the heels of the Commissioner of Police’s withdrawal of officers hitherto sent to secure the 23 council secretariats.