The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike has accused elders and leaders in Rivers State of playing to gallery towards efforts being made to restore peace across the state’s polity.
Wike said the elders and traditional leaders in the state have failed to take up their responsibilities of seeking strategies to ensure that normalcy is restored in Rivers State.
Speaking at the Platinum Jubilee Thanksgiving for Ken Chikere in Port Harcourt, the former governor of Rivers State said the political stakeholders in the state have taken to cheap political blackmail rather than nipping the crisis rocking the state in the bud.
He said, “It’s One month and seven days after Mr President in his wisdom declared a State of Emergency to save Rivers from anarchy. I challenge any Rivers so-called elder, even the traditional rulers – what attempt have they made to bring total peace.
“I challenge any so-called 90 years, 200 years, what effort, since one month and one week by seeing that there is total reconciliation in the state,” Wike said.
According to the Minister, majority of the elders in the state only go on television station to speak without tackling the root cause of the crisis in the polity.
Also reacting by the daily march by some women in the state, Wike said there is no sense in allowing Rivers women of keep hitting the street in the name of protest against the State of Emergency declared by the president.
He said, “No amount of going to the television to abuse anybody will bring peace, because we have always said that there are those who thrive on crisis. When there is crisis, they are happy; when there is no crisis, there is no food on the table.
“Those people cannot be real elders. There is no need for the embarrassing of our women to be naked outside, no amount of such can bring peace. No amount of such blackmail can bring peace. What can bring p[eace is for you to humble yourself and say for the interest of the state, I want everybody to work together. If not, carry all the women,” he added
