Anita Ogona
The Congressionally elected executives of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State chapter, are alarmed at a plot by Hon Chidi Llyod, outgoing chairman of Emohua Local Government Council, a loyalist of the FCT Minister, Chief Nyesom Wike to embark on what we perceive as a process to clamp down on loyalists of former Governor Chibuike Amaechi in Emohua and other parts of Rivers State.
Our alarm is borne out of the fact that we have received credible intelligence that the Emohua Chairman, Hon Chidi Lloyd has been boasting to those in his close circle, that arrangements have been concluded with the tacit support of the FCT Minister to arrest and indefinitely detain vocal political opponents in his local government area, whose only offence is belonging to the camp of the former Governor and Transportation Minister, Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
Our prayer is that this provocative plot is brought to an immediate halt and that the Police should not be dragged into the arena of politics or aid any politician to settle political scores. Based on information available to us, this plot will begin with citizen Chizy Chigozi Enyi, a young lawyer from Emohua LGA and a loyalist of former Governor Amaechi, who is number one on the blackbook of Hon Lloyd and has been invited to appear at the Force Headquarters on April 4th 2024, based on petition(s) allegedly written by the Emohua LGA Council Chairman, and this is in keeping with a template for intimidating perceived opponents and the objective is formulated to silence all voices of dissent.
We hear the strategy is to have citizen Chizy Chigozi Enyi detained indefinitely or at least hold him for an initial 14days before Court proceedings can be initiated against him in order to break his will and deter other loyalists from speaking up against the political happenings in Rivers State where the FCT Minister is seen to openly do everything possible to control the two major political parties in the state (PDP and APC). We also hear an FCT Magistrate Court is willing and ready to handle proceedings.
While we cannot be averse to the Police carrying out its lawful duties within the ambit of the law, we are however shocked at the speed with which the Nigeria Police Force is responding to complaints of cyber bullying by the outgoing Chairman of Emohua LGA, Hon Chidi Lloyd, who by himself signed off for uninterrupted public scrutiny by virtue of taking up a public office to serve his own people. Meanwhile, the so-called offence(s) are all tied to the office he occupies as Council Chairman and therefore well within the rights of citizen Chizy Chigozi Enyi to institute his own independent probe or queries as a private citizen especially when there are several reports from the mainstream media of complaints over poor staff welfare in that LGA. Unless the reason for resorting to intimidation instead of accountability is to confirm the fears of corruption and high-handedness expressed by citizens like Chizy Chigozi Enyi. Or are we being told that this Chairman has appropriated to himself immunity to public scrutiny? or that the Police should be invited whenever citizens ask germane questions related to governance style of any LGA in the country? Or has Emohua LGA been freely captured by Hon Lloyd? or do we believe there is an attempt by this Chairman to force his own people to believe that he has established a Master/Servant relationship in his LGA where voters are now his slaves and him, their Master?. Could this authoritarian leadership style be contributory to the unfortunate spiral of insecurity in that LGA in the past three years?. Plenty of questions begging answers and we leave the public to judge.
Our surprise over this shameful anti-climax for the rule of law in our state, stems however, from the fact that in the not-too-distant past, our members/supporters were arrested, detained and even killed without justice. For example, on the 18th of March 2023, our Governorship Campaign Coordinator for Ahoada West LGA (Mr Chiosom Lennard Tabele) and three others were murdered in cold blood and up till today, no single arrest has been made despite promises by the Police Command in Rivers State to bring the killers to book. Again, there was an attack on our office at No. 118 Woji Road, GRA, on April 3, 2023, by armed political thugs who were most audaciously given cover to perpetrate this violent act by a unit of the Nigeria Police Force in Rivers State (i.e.C4i Intelligence Unit) and this has also gone untreated. No arrests have been made, no investigations is being carried out even in the face of a viral CCTV footage that picked attackers moving ammunition out of a Sienna car in front of a popular supermarket/departmental store.
We can go on and on with sordid accounts of rights abuses, humiliations, attacks and intimidations that were properly documented with the Police authorities but were left uninvestigated or prosecuted. Citizen Chizy Chigozi Enyi is a member of an opposition party and reserves the right to query, analyze and/or critique government policies, projects and programmes because no projects/programmes of government are initiated or executed with personal funds but with taxpayers money and deserves thorough scrutiny. Taxes are deducted and or enforced without compromised, so why should a citizen be victimized for asking questions?
Meanwhile, some vocal critics believed to be in the pockets of the Minister, who are friends of Hon Lloyd, have freely been carrying out even more vitriolic verbal attacks in the name of criticism or advocacy against the State Governor, believing that this is the right of opposition people. Who has invited or arrested the Chairman of Ikwerre LGA who called a sitting Governor a “mumu” (fool) in a viral video?
Well, besides being a member of the APC, citizen Chizy Chigozi Enyi is also an indigene of Emohua LGA (where he exercises his voting rights), meaning that governance activities within that geographical space will always be of primary interest to him because as they always say “charity begins at home”.
It is the duty of the opposition parties to challenge those holding positions of trust unto greater accountability, responsibility, and transparency. Asking the hard questions and holding office holders to account for every kobo belonging to the people is citizens’ responsibility which a public office holder cannot stop by hiding under the cover of the Cyber bullying Act to silence especially when the material shared is squarely centered on policies/programmes/projects being carried out by the said office holder.
Strangely, rather than deploying superior logic to fact-check or counter what the outgoing Chairman of Emohua LGA felt was vexatious, he resorted entirely to deploying the coercive instrument of the state. We believe this is a ploy to deny the people of Emohua LGA and indeed Nigerians the opportunity to thoroughly scrutinize all the information pertaining his local government area especially as it bothers on public accountability.
We are unaware of any platform, structure or framework set up by the Emohua LGA under Hon Lloyd, to account for the millions received monthly from FAAC (Federation Account Allocation Committee) which has run into billions of naira in the almost three years of taking office. It is settled fact that unchecked corrupt practices and abuse of power are capable of threatening the peace, order, and good governance of any part of the federation.
We therefore in all good conscience, view the invasion of the residence of citizen Chizy Chigozi Enyi by armed men fully hooded claiming to be law enforcement agents (particularly the Police) at around 10pm on the 27th of March 2024, without prior invitation to citizen Chizy Chigozi Enyi, as scandalous, barbaric, provocative, and a sad reminder of the ugly past where both the Police Act and dignity of the human person were so flagrantly abused in the name of carrying out policing activities. The Police should be everybody’s friend and must not at any time be seen as taking sides with the oppressor against the oppressed. It is taxpayers money that is at the center of the Enyi/Lloyd tango. What citizen Enyi queries is the activities of Hon Lloyd (as Chairman of Emohua Local Government Council) and not Lloyd as a private citizen of Nigeria!
May we quickly invite the Police authorities and the public, to take notice of the fact that citizen Chizy Chigozi Enyi has entered a fundamental rights enforcement action at the Rivers State High Court against the IGP and five others in Suit No. PHC/982/FHR/2024. We therefore plead with security agencies to be circumspect in handling matters connected to politically exposed persons who deceptively rush to such agencies for cover rather than speak to issues of accountability and transparency in an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of unsuspecting citizens in order to continue with their agenda of maximum rulership.
In the comings days, and especially if these threats continue against our supporters in that local government area, we shall be forced to publish details of FAAC receipts accruing to Emohua LGA side by side budgetary estimates and actual projects on ground for the public to critically evaluate the quality of these projects as against actual cost, bidding/advertisement for tenders in the face of the Procurement Act 2017 (as amended).
We warn that this abrasive governance style must be discouraged by men of goodwill; it should not be allowed to fester in any Constitutional democracy.
Signed:
Chief Emeka Beke
State Chairman
Comr Darlington Nwauju
Spokesperson
31st March 2024
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