The governors of Rivers and Katsina states, Rotimi Amaechi and Ibrahim Shema have been warned by former Federal Commissioner for Information and South South leader, Chief Edwin Clark to be mindful of using inflammatory and provocative statements, capable of over heating the polity ahead of 2015 general elections.
►Addressing Journalists yesterday at his Asokoro residence in Abuja, Chief Clark, while pleading with those he described as political gladiators to allow the Nigeria people to decide in 2015, took a swipe at Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s statement on Wednesday, November 19 during the Salvation rally in Abuja by the All Progressives Congress, APC.
►He said Amaechi’s statements were not only unfortunate, but treasonable, just as he condemned Shema’s allusion to those in opposition as cockroaches that must be crushed.
►Addressing Journalists yesterday at his Asokoro residence in Abuja, Chief Clark, while pleading with those he described as political gladiators to allow the Nigeria people to decide in 2015, took a swipe at Governor Chibuike Amaechi’s statement on Wednesday, November 19 during the Salvation rally in Abuja by the All Progressives Congress, APC.
►He said Amaechi’s statements were not only unfortunate, but treasonable, just as he condemned Shema’s allusion to those in opposition as cockroaches that must be crushed.
Clark stressed that it was highly condemnable describing human beings as cockroaches, even as he criticised the use of tear-gas by the police at the National Assembly.
Shema was quoted to have encouraged his supporters to retaliate any provocation by the opposition and to crush them like “cockroaches”.
The elder statesman however described the lawmakers presently collecting signatures to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan as jokers.
On the speaker
On the siege at the National Assembly, Chief Clark said, he said the refusal of the Speaker and his entourage to submit themselves to the Police search that led to the ugly scene witnessed on that day.
“It shall be recalled that the police barrier was mounted at the entrance of the Senate where Senators submitted themselves in a civilized manner to searches by the Police. Senate President, David Mark, who is a retired General, maintained the required decorum and dignity, submitted himself for search without any hitch; so did all the Senators.
On Salvation rally
On the Salvation rally by the APC, the Ijaw leader said, he decided to come out of his self-imposed moratorium on public statements because of the serious pronouncements which emanated from a rally in Abuja, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, last Tuesday, “two days before the National Assembly ‘show of shame’, suggestive of a pre-planned sequence.”
Clark said “I understand that some people want to make political meat of my regular appeal for good neighbourliness in the country. They will fail, because the public, the voters, know that I stand on truth, justice and fair play, and those alone.
“At my age, with all I have seen of this country, my modest, yet my all, which I have contributed, someone, or groups, would want me to keep quiet when they themselves are pouring fuel upon fire in our jointly-owned fatherland.
“Governor Amaechi said, at least, five major dangerous things, paraphrased as: No matter how correctly and empirical decided, the All Progressives Congress Party, APC, will not accept any result that does not give it victory in the 2015 General Election. The APC will NOT employ the legal channel to contest any result it challenges. The APC will form a parallel, or alternative government, supposedly at all levels of government. The APC will call for widespread civil disobedience, which I call unrest.”
