Rives State crisis: Governor Amaechi gives Jonathan his conditions for peace

Indications have emerged that the political crisis rocking Rivers state may linger following the conditions given to President Goodluck Jonathan by the State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, for peace.

Amaechi, who had visited the President in Aso Villa Friday last week, had a brief meeting with Jonathan with a view to resolving the crisis rocking the state, including the dwindling security situation in the state.

The conditions given to President Jonathan by Amaechi are strong:
An impeccable source told Punch that one of the conditions given to Jonathan by the state governor was the sacking of the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, his boy who he nominated.


The governor, according to the source, who is a stakeholder of the PDP in Rivers State, had expressed his discomfort over Wike’s overbearing attitude in the state.

Amaechi was said to had told the President that the minister’s utterances in recent times were worsening the already tensed situation in the state.

“He specifically told President Jonathan that Wike should be sacked so that peace would come back to Rivers. That was one of the things he (Amaechi) demanded from the President.

“The governor believes that with Wike’s utterances, it will be difficult for peace to reign in the state. Amaechi was particularly not comfortable with the influence of the minister on the PDP in the state,” the source said.

Wike had told his supporters to be ready to fight, a directive that appeared not to have gone down well with Governor Amaechi.

But the factional Chairman of the state chapter of the PDP who is loyal to Wike, Felix Obuah, claimed that if Amaechi indeed made such a demand, the President would not accede to it, as he described the minister as one of the best in Jonathan’s administration.

Defending Wike's open call to people to fight, Felix Obuah said:
“When Wike told his supporters to fight, what he meant was that his supporters must fight for their right. A situation where the governor does not embrace the rule of law, what does he (Amaechi) expect?”

Wike is working to become governor of Rivers State in 2015 but Amaechi is insisting that as an Ikwerre man it will be injustice to other tribes in the state, for him to handover to Wike, a fellow Ikwerre man.
- Punch

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