Izuchukwu OkosiA Lagos-based lawyer, Fred Nzeakor has weighed in on the ongoing political tension in Rivers State, calling for peace among the different factions in the oil-rich state.
The former Governor and current FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, and the incumbent Governor Siminalayi Fubara have been locked in a political battle in the last one month.
The state assembly lawmakers believed to be loyal to Wike have been making attempts to remove Fubara, who is also fighting back to retain his office.
Nzeakor, who was speaking on an Arise News programme monitored by Prime Business Africa, insisted that the elders of the state must call for a truce to end the rising tensions in the state.
“It is very embarrassing and very shocking that democracy is in coma in Rivers State and what we are seeing cannot be described as democracy but civil dictatorship,” the legal luminary stated.
“And it’s so embarrassing because Rivers people would not allow themselves to follow a particular trajectory that started during the Nigeria /Biafra civil war.
“In all the states in Nigeria – it’s only in Rivers that the Igbo man lost his properties and it was called “abandoned property.” That means the people have sown their blood in their properties and such psychological and spiritual paradigms must be looked into.
Nzeakor went on in his demands for leaders of thought in Rivers State to foster lasting unity among its people.
“Instead of showing brotherly love in Rivers State, what we are seeing is ‘brotherly brutality’ Wike is suffering from ‘God complex’.
“The elders of Rivers State must start educating its young ones to embrace peace and not brutality so that God forbid, things don’t go beyond politics and get fatal,” Nzeakor opined.
In recent times, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had waded into the Rivers crisis and acted the role of father and peacemaker in the political tension in the state.
In the aftermath of last week’s crisis in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership announced that President Tinubu’s mediation effort in the crisis has collapsed.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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