Friday, October 4 2024 -Human Rights Activist, Ann-Kio Briggs has lamented over the condition of Rivers state people.
She claimed that Governor of Rivers State, Siminalaya Fubara and
the people of the state are being held hostage by FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Ann-Kio Briggs said the hostage was because of an agreement Fubara
had with the Rivers State’s immediate former governor, Nyesom Wike.
Mrs. Briggs noted that Wike bought governorship nomination for
Fubara.
She added that Wike was also instrumental in seeing that the other
13 persons that bought the nomination forms gave up their ambition for Fubara
in line with the political geographical consideration in the state.
Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Thursday, Mrs. Briggs
regretted that the people of Rivers State are the ones suffering the effect of
the political battle between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT), Wike and Governor Fubara.
“When the story broke last year that the governor of River State,
Governor Siminalaya Fubara was going to be impeached, it came as a shock to the
people of River State. I think it came as a shock to the governor because he
kept asking, what have I done? Now stepping back from that, because we were in
shock, but now a lot of stories have come out and the first claim is that the
former governor is responsible for the emergence of the present governor,
Governor Siminalaya Fubara, which is not untrue.
“But one human being cannot make one person a governor of a state, that
mathematically is not right. Everybody has one vote. Now what the former
governor of River State did and which he accepted that he did, that he bought
14 forms for 14 persons of which Siminalay Fubara was one of them. At some
stage everybody else was told to drop their ambition for Siminalay Fubara. Now
there is a political dichotomy in River State and that’s why Siminalay Fubara
who is from a particular ethnic group was given the ticket. We have an upland
riverine dichotomy in River State,” she said.
Briggs continued, “Whatever may have transpired between the
former governor and the present governor is not the problem of River’s people
because we did not go into that agreement as the former governor calls it or
understanding with the present governor and the former governor.
“Now we have become, along with the present governor, the victims, the
state itself is now held hostage along with the people of River State, along
with the governor of River State and every other person
who is in the present governor’s cabinet. And so we are definitely not in
agreement with whatever that is going on.”
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