An elder statesman and leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark. has written to the Inspector General of Police, asking him to intervene in the political crisis in Rivers State.
Rivers is boiling following the feud between the state governor, Sim Fubara and his predecessor. who is currently the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike.
The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday asked the 27 members of the House of Assembly loyal to Wike, to commence impeachment proceedings against Fubara.
But Clark in the letter to the IGP said the move would deepen the crisis and cause severe breakdown of law and order in the Rivers and the entire Niger Delta region.
Reading the letter during a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja, Clark said it is more disturbing that the 27 members of the state House of Assembly were allegedly carrying out their “illegal activities” under the cover of police.
Clark, a former federal commissioner for information said, “You (IGP) have a duty therefore to stop these fraudulent former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from parading themselves and issuing provocative statements to intimidate and increase tension in Rivers State which may one day burst into open conflagration.
“The recent unprovoked announcement by the Speaker and 26 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly might cause a breakdown of law and order in Rivers State and the consequences of such crisis will not only affect Rivers State politically, socially and economically but will also affect the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large.
“We have enough of such crisis of all dimensions in nearly all parts of this country already and we therefore prevent anymore of such crisis.
“It is even more disturbing that these former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly are carrying out their illegal activities under the cover of policemen in uniform on whom rest a primary duty to enforce the law.”
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyer