…says President turning into a dictator
Former governor of Akwa Ibom State, His Excellency, Arch. (Obong) Victor Attah has picked holes in President Bola Tinubu’s recent declaration of a State of Emergency in Rivers State, saying that there was no sufficient evidence to warrant such a proclamation.
Obong Attah who’s also Co-chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), while fielding questions during an interview with Arise TV said the President, with his actions was drifting towards dictatorship.
According to Obong Attah: “We met with the President and the next day His Minister was on TV insulting us that we are the most useless group any one should take serious”.
The former governor also expressed his shock over the President’s non-response to PANDEF’s letter regarding the peace assignment he gave the group to undertake in Rivers State, only for a state of Emergency to be declared the next day.
“The president who asked us to go and reconcile both parties; we wrote to him on the 17th asking him to compel his minister to meet with us having refused to meet with us. The next day 18th, The same President solely declared state of Emergency without responding to our letter or compelling his Minister to meet with us”, Obong Attah said.
Disagreeing with the President over the declaration, the PANDEF’s helmsman continued: “We did not see any sufficient evidence to warrant state of Emergency. The president also did not wait for the legislature to give legitimacy to his orders. He went ahead and swore in the Administrator. It appears that it’s a premeditated script.
“In kaduna, the relationship between the Godfather and the son has broken down but the governor is allowed to function. The president is using his privilege to give advantage to his Minister
“The Governor should not have left the seat in my opinion. His whereabout I don’t know , this present Nigerian system is turning the president into a Dictator”.
Obong Attah also faulted the attempt to justify the state of emergency proclamation based on unsubstantiated link of the governor to the reported bombing of pipeline in the state.
He said “None of the militants claimed responsibility for any pipeline. No confirmation about any pipeline yet, the President went ahead and declared a state of Emergency.
“The Son can denounce the father. What’s wrong with that? The president seems to have stabbed us in the back haven sent us on an assignment and asked us to come back to him if we have any challenge.
“How do we work with a Sole Administrator? We can only work with the President to resolve the crisis if we can’t do that then we have failed as a nation.
“Everybody said the Supreme Court judgement was not right but it stands.
The state of Emergency everybody thinks it’s faulty but it stands .
We can’t continue like this.
“Because of lack of party internal Democracy, some people go about saying they make someone a Governor. Why should one person make a Governor”.
