Politics
Rivers Crisis: APC calls for state of emergency, says state at war
The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the state.
Chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee in the state, Chief Tony Okocha, made the call during a media briefing in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
He said: “Rivers State is at war. And the dramatis personae who are responsible for the mayhem that has claimed lives are known.
“The governor is helpless, the police is helpless. Therefore the APC in Rivers State is calling for a state of emergency in Rivers State as a way of taming the mayhem, the upsurge that is going on in the state. I call on the federal government to act fast in this regard.”
READ ALSO:Fubara goes after former LG bosses, orders audit of councils’ accounts
Constitutionally, the Federal Government is empowered to declare a state of emergency during a natural disaster, civil unrest, armed conflict, medical pandemic, epidemic or other biosecurity risk.
The call by Rivers State APC followed renewed hostilities between the camps of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor and godfather, Nyesom Wike, the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
The current crisis came about when elected local government officials, whose tenure expired on Monday, June 17th, refused to vacate office, relying on a controversial law passed by the 27 pro-Wike members of the Rivers State House of Assembly extending their tenure by six months.
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