YAR'ADUA UNDER PRESSURE OVER RIVERS CRISIS

... AC, Ijaw Leaders Seek Judicial Probe

President Yaradua

PRESIDENT Umar Musa Yar'Adua is currently under intense pressure by political and ethnic leaders, to institute a high-powered judicial commission of inquiry into the bloodletting that rocked Rivers State recently. Lobbyists are also pushing for such a probe panel to look into the alleged renewed cycle of looting in the state.

Besides the Ijaw leaders galvanised by Chief Edwin Clark, the Action Congress, AC, a leading opposition party in the troubled Rivers state, has also joined in pressing for an indepth probe of the state.

Key figures being targeted by those calling for the judicial commission of inquiry, are the immediate past governor of the statem Dr. Peter Odili, and his successor, Sir Celestine Omehia. For those who know better, Omehia is being alleged to be a beneficiary of '' the evil regime'' Odili allegedly established in the state through the Okrika crisis.

Repeated denials by Omehia that he is not a member of a cult group do not seem to persuade those who are agitating for a probe in Rivers, as a means to end the vicious cycle of bloodletting in the state since 2002. Although Omehia's deputy, Tele Ikuru, has also denied that he is not a cultist, but those who claim ro know him, say he was merely economical with the truth.

The obviously angry Ijaw leaders are insisting that it was Odili who armed their unemployed youths to prosecute a political war against the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP in the Okrika axis of the state. Okrika was a stronghold of the ANPP. To dislodge the party before the controversial 2003 elections, a reign of terror was unleashed in the area, leading to scores of deaths and arson. Third Republic Governor of the state, Chief Rufus Ada-George, who was Odili's boss fled the flshpoint for his dear life.

In the Kalabari flank, rivers of blood were all over the place. Dangerously armed youths who claimed to be working for the administration then, sacked several communities in the area. The Kalabari royal stool was allegedly desecrated by the foot soldiers of the then political potentate. There was a failed attempt on the life of Prof. Tam David-West.

On the eve of May 29, this year, there was an allegation that government dolled out N400million to some armed youths on a killing expedition in the Kalabari axis, in a seeming desperate bid to ensure a hitch-free  handing-over ceremony. Before the killing expedition, there were threats from that flank by some rival militia groups that they will disrupt Omehia's swearing-in.

The mayhem that rocked the streets of Port Harcourt in August, going by the testimony of some militia circles, was allegedly over unpaid bills for the job the rampaging political army did for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the disputed April 14 governorship election for Omehia.

Protagonists of probe in Rivers, as of Friday, were claiming that The Presidency was favourable dispose to any means that will enable Abuja get to the bottom of the remote and immediate causes of insecurity in the state.

AC at the weekend raised the stakes in the probe lobby when it came out openly to allege the  involvement of some of the key political actors in Rivers in the funding and sponsoring the activities of cultists and militants. 

AC governorship candidate, Tonye Princewill, who spoke in Port Harcourt, through his Media Consultant, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, said the party was not in support of the security problem ''the illegitimate PDP regime created, as a pretext to render over one million residents homeless in the waterfront areas''.

Continuing, the party said, ''they are using the claim that the waterfronts harbour crimals as an alibi to punish the electorate there for supporting  and voting for the opposition parties in the last April 419 elections''.

''For avoidance of doubt considering the magnitude of the issues at stake'', AC went on, ''we will like to say that it will be better that the Presidency set-up a high powered Judicial Commission of Inquiry to probe the Rivers crisis since  the actors involved are not only desperate, but are ready to bribe even an angel of God in order to safeguard and cover up their evil pasts''.

According to the party, ''a judicial commission of inquiry will go a long way to actually unearth those people behind this evil plot to destablise our state and the country at large. We will like to state that unless the root and branch of those behind this mayhem are exposed, uprooted and the source of infiltration of arms into the region, illegal oil bunkering stopped and the looting and wastage of all the billions of Naira that accrued to the State these past eight years investigated and accounted for and the April fool election that brought in Omehia to power righted; we are afraid that the efforts of the Federal Government in this regard will be an exercise in futility.

It doesn’t give us any pleasure to be so blunt but Rivers people are silently dying, its industry and economy  crippled, lives so unsecured and the image of our State so dented that the right things need to be done to arrest the situation and avoid making the State the  theater of war which lack of actions on the part of the Federal Government now may entails in future. True Leaders must sit up and take notice''.

The AC leader said Yar'Adua has demonstrated enough commitment, vision and focus in attending to some of the problems facing their people, pointing out they are ready as a party to assist Abuja get to the tap root of the Rivers problem. 

Insisting, they said, ''we are ever ready at any given time to work and assist the Presidency in any capacity without any reservation to achieve peace for our region and the State as the issues at stake  goes beyond political affiliation. The fact remains that it isn’t PDP people or AC people that are dying. It is Ijaw people, Ikwerre people, Ogoni people, Rivers people, Niger Delta people, Nigerians. Not to talk of foreigners. The consequence affects us all, so we are all stakeholders in this very sensitive subject and ready to collaborate with any group or persons in achieving peace for our state''.

For a sustainable peace in Rivers and the Niger Delta as a whole, AC says they will like to recommend that efforts of the Federal Government in addressing the problems should be augmented by the transnational oil and gas corporations operating in the region by enacting relevant laws that will  compel them to set-aside part of their huge profits to addressing infrastructural inadequacies of the region.

''Part of this fund should also be used to train and equip our youths to be  employable within the oil sector- We believe that if implemented it will  go a long way in arresting the youths restiveness in the region and save us the embarrassment the region has found it self currently'', the party said.