District head of the northern traditional council in Rivers State and the chairman of the Arewa initiative for a peaceful co-existence in Southern Nigeria, Musa Saidu has said that whatever agreement that the Rivers State governor, Sim Fubara signed in the villa was under duress.
Saidu, in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday night, said the governor was humiliated but will not surrender his mandate to anybody as Wike did not surrender to anybody during his time.
“The former governor didn’t believe that he had left power. That was why during the election, when a lot of people came out to protest, he said no. He is the one that told us that Sim is the best and is better than him and Sim is a civil servant who has diligently served the state. So, the feud is expected, except for those that don’t know Rivers State and the former governor. It’s not today that the former governor started this. He is doing it because Nigeria is corrupt.
“There will be no two governors. It’s only one. Fubara is the governor of Rivers State and I am sorry to say this, the chief of staff in the villa, where Wike is dancing and mocking people, he should watch his back. I’m advising him. He doesn’t know Wike. That’s how he did with Jonathan. Wike has been doing what he wants and getting away with it.
“I am not comfortable with the agreement that the governor signed; that the lawmakers will come back, the commissioners will come back. The President himself or Wike will not have accepted it. The only people that can decide Fubara’s case are the people of Rivers State. Whatever Fubara signed in the villa was under duress. They took him there to humiliate him. If Fubara is going to sign anything, he has to come back and tell Rivers people about it.
“Fubara will not surrender his mandate to anybody as Wike did not surrender to anybody. Wike did not use Amaechi’s commissioners. President Tinubu did not use Buhari’s ministers. So, no one will compel Fubara to use any commissioner. He needs a new team and a new government for him to succeed.”
On his part, legal practitioner Frank Tietie has condemned the peace agreement brokered by President Tinubu, stating that ‘the paper is worthless’ and has called on Rivers people not to give much attention to it.
Tietie said the agreement was cooked up to make Fubara bend to do their biddings.
“We are unnecessarily exalting a mere political intervention by the president, which has no legal basis and that is a sad development. You don’t reduce a quarrel between a political Godfather and son to a point where the president of the country will invite them to the Aso rock villa without any legal basis, and then ask them to sign a certain paper. That paper is worthless and useless.
“We shouldn’t give much attention to it to the extent that Rivers State indigenes are now debating it. I think it’s laughable. It shows that many people do not understand the purpose of a ceasefire in wartime. They don’t know that it is a time to reduce tension, re-strategize to carry out further attacks. That’s what the document is for. It has diverted attention from the build up we have witnessed in Rivers State which would have snowballed into a political crisis.
“Fubara has already been weakened before signing that agreement. Infact, there is a perspective that this agreement is a way of getting Fubara to save face. The only strength of this agreement is the fear both parties have for the president. The president is actually the power force that both parties are afraid of. Sim Fubara knows that and this agreement was made for him to break.
“They set it up in such a way that there would be a reason to move presidential power against him in a way we practice our very crude democracy in Nigeria. Look at the kind of humiliating conditions he has been given. At this point, it is a joke to even say the seats of the defected lawmakers are vacant. It is a mere wish. “
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