Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Barr. Emma Okah, has accused opposition members in the state of frustrating efforts by the Wike-led administration to promote security in the state.
Okah who is also the Director of Information and Communication of the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council, further said that members of the opposition in the state also politicize the issue of security.
The Information Commissioner who made the remarks as a guest on a live radio programme in Port-Harcourt at the weekend, described the recent kidnap of a Special Adviser on Lands and Survey to Governor Nyesom Wike as “unfortunate”.
Dr. Anugbum Onuoha, Special Adviser to Governor Wike on Lands and Survey, was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen last Thursday in an unnamed hotel in Port-Harcourt, the state capital.
Okah said: “It’s important for everyone of us to see ourselves as stakeholders in security matters. Two, that security should not be a subject of politicization. Three, that professionals and security agents should be allowed to do their jobs very professionally. If all of us key into these three points I made here, it will be a lot easier for us to understand what our problems are, where they are coming from and possibly with one accord advance possible solutions to them, but what you see is that when it happens in Rivers State, those in the opposition who believe they are not part of Rivers State shout hallelluya (and) clap their hands…
“Coming to talk about Rivers State, we have repeatedly said it that the problem we’re having here is that while the government is making effort to ensure that people of Rivers State and those who live here can sleep with their two eyes closed, those our brothers who should be concerned in the same way government is concerned are the ones thwarting the efforts we are making”.
He said the effort by the state government to improve security in the state through the Neighbourhood Watch agency was also thwarted by soldiers of the Nigerian Army, and recalled how soldiers disrupted the recruitment process of members of the agency.
The Commissioner for Information said that members of the Neighbourhood Watch agency would have assisted the police in Rivers State with information gathering in the fight against crime in the state.
He said: “How will anybody explain that decision by the Nigerian Army, and the same Nigerian Army had been spotted in other states supporting, promoting and engineering Neighbourhood Watch outfits (and) the federal government had keyed into it sufficiently well… But what did we get? You saw soldiers from nowhere, you come and disrupt a noble and well thought-out process, you disrupt it and the impression you are giving to the people of Rivers State is that we should continue to live under the fear of insecurity”.
He said that the efforts by the state government to promote security were also hampered by the federal government.
Okah appealed to the people of the state to come together and work with the state government to promote security irrespective of their political leanings.
He said that the state government would allow the police to do their work in order to rescue the Governor’s Special Adviser on Lands and Survey.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Rivers State, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, had said that the police would go “all out” to speedily rescue Dr. Onuoha from the hands of his captors.
He said that the State Commissioner of Police had given instruction to all tactical units including the IGP Monitoring Unit, to work “round the clock” to ensure that the governor’s aide is released in “record time” from his abductors.
