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The opposition party said plot is the last desperate act to force Rivers Governor to resign.
The opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, has condemned the reported plot to abduct, blackmail and force the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, to resign from office, saying it was the last act of those bent on ousting the governor at all costs.In a statement issued on Sunday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said the plot, which was exposed by a group, Rivers Peoples Forum, RPF, should be taken seriously, against the background of a similar occurrence in the past and the outcry by Mr Amaechi that his life was in danger.
“Anyone who thinks this alarm by the Rivers Peoples Forum is outlandish should remember what happened to then Anambra State Governor Chris Ngige, who was abducted and rough handled in 2003 in what is undoubtedly the most egregious violation of democratic institutions in our country’s history,” the APC said.
”The instigators and perpetrators of the crisis in Rivers are keenly aware that they are running out of options. Their impeachment plan has been foiled by the takeover of the legislative functions of the Rivers State House of Assembly’s functions by the the National Assembly, while their plan to declare a state of emergency in the state has also failed, against the lack of support for such act by the National Assembly.
”This is the reason for this last desperate act by an increasingly-desperate Presidency, which may not exclude a final solution. We are therefore, for the umpteenth time, calling on civil society and human rights organizations, opinion leaders and indeed all lovers of democracy and believers in constitutional rule to intervene to stop the runaway culture of impunity in Rivers State.”
The party said it was instructive that a day after the RPF exposed the plot against Mr Amaechi, the chairman of the PDP in Rivers State, Felix Obuah, set out to prepare the grounds for the plotwhen he called a press conference to accuse Mr Amaechi of “insulting and dragging the names of President Goodluck Jonathan and the First Lady, Patience Jonathan to the mud”.
‘The party said, ‘There can be no better confirmation of the evil plot than this.”
APC also warned that the situation in Rivers State, which has continued to unfold under the watch of the presidency, which it said had made the state’s police commissioner the de facto governor with a instruction to neutralize Mr Amaechi, should not be seen as an isolated incident, but as a part of a grand plot and a test run for 2015.
”As we have said before, the crisis in Rivers is being deliberately orchestrated to test the waters ahead of the 2015 elections, with the belief that if the perpetrators get away with the massive impunity in the state, it can then be extended to other states before 2015 to ensure that the polls will be everything but free, fair and transparent, and also to satisfy the yearnings of a president who is obsessed with winning re-election.
”The daylight rape of democracy in Delta state on Oct. 12th by those who prevented elections from holding, only to announce concocted results, is also part of this plot. The new strategy is to use security agencies, especially the police and the military, to undermine democracy. We have not seen the last of these dangerous games, hence the need for all to be vigilant,” APC said
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