Promoters of emergency rule responsible for failed Rivers explosion – Fubara

The Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, on Wednesday, blamed individuals pushing for emergency rule in the state for the failed explosion in the state capital.

A loud blast was heard near the Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt during a protest march by some political leaders in support of the police occupation of the 23 local council secretariats in the state.

Rivers State has been rocked by crisis over the refusal of local council chairmen to vacate their offices after the expiration of their tenure.

The governor, according to a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Nelson Chukwudi, spoke when a delegation of the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation led by the chairman, Orji Uzor Kalu, visited him at the Government House in Port Harcourt,

He alleged that the protesters knew that the lawmakers were staying at the hotel.

READ ALSO: Fubara removes Wike’s ally as chairman of Rivers traditional rulers’ council

The protesters, according to him, planned to detonate the explosive so that the lawmakers would support the call for the declaration of emergency rule in Rivers.

Fubara said: “As a matter of fact, let me tell you, I know everything that is happening. Yesterday (Tuesday), they (the protesters) were aware that you were in the state.

“So, there was an attempt to create a serious problem. In fact, there was a plan to detonate dynamite at the Hotel Presidential because you people were there.

“But this God that we serve, it happened that the man who was trying to do it detonated it, but just a few seconds after, it blew his hands off.

“The idea was that as you were hearing the state of emergency, it would be so that by the time they finish when you return to have your sitting on Thursday, the debate will be from somebody from this state who called you people to tell you not to come.

“He will now raise the issue of a state of emergency and say, after all, distinguished colleagues saw it happen while they were in Rivers state, that they saw what happened.”

 

 

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