Rivers Crisis: Why failed bomber targeted Port Harcourt hotel – Fubara

Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State said the failed bomber in Rivers attempted to detonate an explosive device at the Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, in order to strengthen the calls for a declaration of a state of emergency in the state.

The Chairperson of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers, Tony Okocha, last week, called for the declaration of state emergency in the state after the political crisis rocking the oil-rich state turned violent.

Mr Okocha is an ally of the former governor of Rivers, Nyesom Wike, the current minister of FCT, who is engaged in a protracted battle with Governor Fubara over the control of the political structure in the state.

Supporters of Mr Wike on Monday began protesting in the state in solidarity with the minister, and on Tuesday, a man suspected to be one of the protesters detonated an explosive device around a five-star hotel, the Hotel Presidential, where members of the National Assembly were lodging.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that the failed bomber was “stable” and was undergoing treatment at a hospital in the state.

Speaking on Wednesday while receiving a delegation of the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, led by its Chairperson, Orji Kalu, at Government House, Mr Fubara said the failed bomber targeted the hotel where the senators were lodging in order to strengthen the call for the declaration of a state of emergency in the state.

Mr Fubara’s remark is contained in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday by the governor’s spokesperson, Chukwudi Nelson.

“As a matter of fact, let me tell you, I know everything that is happening. Yesterday (Tuesday), they (protesters) were aware that you (lawmakers) are in the state. So, there was an attempt to create a serious problem.

“There was a plan to detonate dynamite at the Hotel Presidential because you people were there. But this God that we serve, it happened that the man who was trying to do it, detonated it. But just a few seconds after, it blew his hands off.

“The idea was that as you were hearing about the state of emergency, it will be so that by the time they finish, when you return to have your sitting tomorrow (Thursday), the debate will be from somebody from this state who called you people to tell you not to come. He will now raise the issue of state of emergency, and say after all, distinguished colleagues saw it happen while you were in Rivers State, that you saw what happened.

“But you see, when you are with God, even your own child who is planning evil, will go and tell somebody that God is with this man because he is clean, this is what my father is planning. That is what is keeping us in this state,” Governor Fubara told the senators.

Local council tenure

The outgone elected chairpersons of the local government councils in Rivers State are insisting that they would not leave office after their three-year tenure expired last Monday.

The former chairpersons, who are Mr Wike’s allies, are relying on the Rivers Amended Local Government Administration Law which extended their tenure by six months.

The law, which was done by pro-Wike lawmakers in the Rivers House of Assembly, has, however, been invalidated by an order of a State High Court which restrained the lawmakers from parading themselves as members of the Rivers assembly because of their defection from the PDP to the APC.

The court had nullified all the resolutions made by the lawmakers. The matter is now a subject of appeal at the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt.

Speaking at the meeting with the visiting senators, Governor Fubara wondered which state in Nigeria has had the tenure of elected council officials extended before.

“Where on earth can the tenure of local government chairmen be elongated? You were a former governor (referring to Senator Kalu). Was it tried in your time? Even those of you that are senators here, even in your own states, has anyone tried this before?

“Is it that the Constitution that governs Nigeria is different from the one that operates in Rivers State? These are the very pertinent questions we should ask.

“Why should it be that when it comes to the case of Rivers State, the law is always silent? Is it that there is somebody bigger than Nigeria? That is the question I want you to go back with.”

Governor Fubara told the senators that he and his allies were not fighting against anybody, but that they were only defending themselves.

“Only a tree will be standing and somebody will come and cut it off. It doesn’t happen as a human being. If you know that danger is coming, you shift. What we are doing is just to protect ourselves. So, distinguished senators, I am not fighting anybody.”

The governor told members of the committee to consider the interest of Rivers State as they recommend the privatisation and commercialisation of public companies, saying that when the state buys stakes in such companies, they could be protected and supervised to be viable.