I Was Offered N500 Million To Shut Down Oginigba Market -Obio/Akpor Chair
13 min read
Chairman of the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Mr. Chijioke Ihunwo, has revealed that he rejected 500 million naira offered him to shut down the Oginigba Market he recently reopened in the LGA.
Ihunwo stated this in an interview with newsmen at the council secretariat on Thursday, while sympathizing with families of the victims of the October 31, 2023 political crisis that led to the arrest of him and about 131 others.
In the interview, he also urged president Bola Ahmed Tinubu to call the FCT Minister, Chief Nyesom Wike to order, accusing the former governor of threatening democracy in the state.
The Obio/Akpor chair also requested that the governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, set up a probe panel to investigate Wike’s activities while he was governor and asked the FCT Minister to hold his ambition till 2027.
Other issues were; his reaction to the court order restraining the CBN from releasing monthly allocation to the state, the flood situation in his LGA, call to investors that the state and LGA were safe for business, reaffirming his support to the governor and assuring him of eight years tenure, warning illegal revenue collectors, assuring his people of development, among others.
Our correspondent, Edith CHUKU was there.
Excerpts:
Tell us what October 31 means to you; talking about your arrest alongside about 131 others following the political crisis that erupted as a result of an attempt by the Rt. Hon Martins Amaewhule’s led Rivers State House of Assembly to impeach the governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, the explosion of the state house of assembly.
Well, today marks one year the former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly led by Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule attempted to remove the governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara. And that Rivers people stood up and said no to that incident and that we are going to support the governor of Rivers State because we voted for him.
A lot of people died in-course of this process; defending the mandate we gave to the governor of Rivers State, a lot of things happened during that period and today, I want to tell Nigerians that by the grace of God our governor is healthy and strong and he is discharging his duties accordingly and that the enemies of our state are not also resting. Despite the distraction, His excellency is also ensuring that there are projects littered around the 23-local government in Rivers State.
But the center point today is to say; Rivers people we are very strong and we continue to support the governor of Rivers State, and that no amount of distraction will make us look down or turn back against the governor. You are also aware that our governor is looking very strong despite the crisis, distraction, our governor is doing his job as the governor of Rivers State.
The enemies of our state who want to cart away the resources that belong to Rivers people are busy distracting themselves and not Rivers State. First of all, we are here to say, look, we stand with the governor and for those of our youths who lost their lives on that particular day in defending democracy in our state, in defending the mandate we gave to the governor, we want to sympathize with their families and say we have not forgotten about this particular day; 31st of October, 2023, today marks one year and we will continue to pray for their families and give them the necessary supports we need to give to them.
We are also saying that as a local government, as a state, that no one man can own our state; the man who want to be up and down, we are here to say mind your business and concentrate in your ministerial work, you can’t control Abuja and control Rivers State. Rivers State is too big for one man to own as a private estate. Nigerians are watching that one particular person is threatening democracy in Nigeria and the person’s name is Chief Barr. Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike. We have a president in this country and Mr. President is allowing Wike to destroy democracy in Nigeria.
You also heard what happened yesterday; the Federal High Court giving an order, restraining CBN from giving Rivers State their monthly allocation. You now see how desperate the FCT Minister is, he wants to starve the workers of Rivers State, our pensioners, workers of the institution, our mothers who are working. Come to think of it, even most of his supporters are lecturers in various institutions in Rivers State, you want to starve them of fund because you are desperate, you want to own Rivers State, we are going to resist him totally and it’s quite unfortunate that the young man is from our local government and people are clapping for him that he is doing well, and we have said he should stop disgracing our people, our people are not desperate.
I want to also say, the former governor who is the FCT Minister became a governor of this state by error but we supported him for good eight years, why not allow Fubara to do his own tenure for eight years.
Amaechi was close to the former president of Nigeria; Muhammadu Buhari when Nyesom Wike became governor and chased all the 23 local government chairmen out. Amaechi didn’t stop the allocation of Rivers State, he was a very close ally of the former president then, he didn’t say let my people suffer, he left it and concentrated on his job as a minister for transportation, why not Nyesom Wike concentrate on his ministerial position and allow Rivers people to rest. Each day you hear different stories, counter judgment and Nigerians, people are watching that 27 lawmakers who defected and swore affidavit that they have dumped the PDP to APC and people are bathing issues, they are using people writing on social media and the people who are writing on social media are the same people begging us money, telling us that they are hungry, it’s quite unfortunate that somebody is insulting Fubara and you are sending me account number to send you money.
Let me also say this that when the former governor was the governor of Rivers State, the kind of peace we are having in our state now, we didn’t have it, so I will also call on Mr. President to call his minister to order, he should mind his business and wait till 2027. 2027 is very close, as he has said he is waiting, he should allow peace to reign in our state, let us see the development of the governor, let us assess Wike and the current governor who is performing more.
Wike is trying to distract Fubara because he wants to own the resources that belong to our people, so I want to assure Nigerians that they should be calm because everybody is watching, both the international community is watching what is happening in Rivers State, where one man would think that he wants to take over our state through the back door. What we are saying is that we are going to resist him and we are resisting. Our governor is a very strong person despite the distractions, so there is no amount of intimidation that will distract the governor. I want to assure our people that they should go about their normal businesses that the governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara will be governor for eight years and our local government; Obio/Akpor local government we are 100 percent in support of what the governor is doing. We have supported Nyesom Wike for eight years, we are going to support Fubara for eight years.
Even the former speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martins Amaewhule is also from Obio/Akpor Local Government, the key players in this crisis are from our local government and our people are saying we are not with them, just few minutes ago, we received the members of Rumuepirikom Community where the FCT Minister comes from, we don’t hire people, people from his village they have come to say they are supporting the governor, they want peace, they want development.
The ring road been awarded by the previous administration, go and see the kind of flyover bridges they are doing, it’s an eyesore, causing a lot of traffics, infact, the flyover bridge at Rukpokwu is even unnecessary to be there but the former governor awarded those contracts and looted Rivers resources in guise of ring road, you can go and see for yourselves, I am not telling you because we are playing politics, I am telling you, this is what is on ground, go to that flyover and see what is happening there, people are suffering, awarded contracts, carted away with the money that belongs to our people.
I want to also appeal to the governor to set up a probe panel to investigate the activities of Nyesom Ezenwo Wike as the governor then, Wike as a governor of Rivers State made away with a lot of money that belongs to our people. The Bori internal roads, the money was carted away, we don’t know the contractors and you can see a lot of things is happening.
The governor has said he is going to revive most of the state-owned investments; the Songhai Farm and others but Wike has said no, because the governor wants our state to progress, the governor wants development in our state.
As a local government we have also opened the Oginigba Market that was seized by the former governor of Rivers State, Chief Barr E.N Wike, I have given it back to the community, also formed a market committee to manage that particular market because the land belongs to the people. They have been calling me, begging me, infact they even offered me over N500 million to close down that market I said no, the market belongs to the people and they must run that market, so for us, we are not scared, we believe that we are doing the right thing and the right thing we are doing is to ensure that Fubara remains as governor.
When Wike was the governor of this state, this state was more or less inside his pocket, nobody asked him to either give me contract or do anything, he decides who he wants to give. They went about looting almost the 23 local government, burnt down some local government, and I told them if they burn Obio/Akpor local government, we burn down their investments, because we know their investments, they cannot come and burn the local government because they are not the owners of this land, this land belongs to Obio/Akpor people and if you burn anything here we burn your investments, they cannot try it in Obio/Akpor we will resist them. Rivers people are going to stand by the governor and by the grace of God Fubara will be governor for eight years.
You are now the council chairman of Obio/Akpor, what are you going to do differently, what should the people expect from you in your first one year in office?
Let me also say that first of all, why they are crying is because I am the council chairman, I don’t have any godfather, the only person I have as my godfather is His Excellency, the governor of Rivers State, I challenge anybody, it’s the governor that made me the chairman.
Let me tell our people that they should expect a lot of rapid development. By next week we are going to flag off administrative block for the chairman marking the one year in office, we are also going to provide cars for the councilors, vice chairman and other key principal officers of our local government. We are also going to flag off the international women development centre at the SARs road, where we have the international market. We are also going to carry out human capital development for our people. We have also said most of the transformers bought by previous local government chairmen were not powered, we have also given contract to power them, we have about 15 of them. We have also cut down all the taxes paid by those who are doing business in our local government. We have also warned that those who are collecting illegal money within the local government should stop, if we get you, we arrest you.
We have given all our revenues to the consultant, Obio/Akpor nobody is sending anybody to go to anywhere to collect money, if you see anybody collecting money, call us, we will arrest the person, we only have one consultant, her office is up and they are doing their job to ensure that we manage the resources of our people, so we are not giving anybody any job to go and harass people or collect money from anywhere.
Our people should expect a lot of things. We are also going to have interactive session with traditional rulers because these evil men have penetrated some of our traditional rulers, we are going to have meetings with them, women group, youth group and the widows in our local government, we are going to be talking with them monthly to assess how far we’ve gone. We have also started verification of staff; most of those who claim to be working here are cronies and friends of the enemies of our state, they don’t have proper documentation, we have decided to fish them out. There are a lot of things we have started and I want to assure our people that Obio/Akpor is safe under my watch.
Money is essential to achieving most of the things you have mentioned. Now, you have said that the judgement of the court regarding the allocation will not affect the quality of governance. How do you intend to execute your plans without fund?
Well, we have started paying salaries for this month and there is nowhere that a court will give an order that money should not be given to a state and I told you before, it’s only a demonic and satanic human being that will approach a court to stop Rivers people from getting what belongs to them; you are saying that our women, mothers shouldn’t be paid salary.
Like I said before, the state government have appealed that matter so it’s not something to talk about. Nowhere in the world that somebody will just say, stop paying people salary but because the enemy that we have in this state thinks that he is god but by the grace of God he cannot be god, nobody can stop the monthly allocation what they are doing is just to pacify the billions of naira they have collected from Nyesom Wike, Nigerians are watching them.
Are you accusing the FCT Minister of being responsible for the judgment regarding the order restraining CBN from releasing Rivers State allocation?
I am a fearless person and I want to tell Nigerians that the crisis we are facing today in Rivers State; both the court order, even the one that will come next week is sponsored by Nyesom Wike.
We are going to discharge our duties accordingly and ensure that our people get the dividends of voting us as council chairmen. What they are doing, they are just distracting the state government but by the grace of God this matter will soon be a thing of the past, our interest is how Rivers State will move forward.
Peter Odili has done his tenure and he is resting, Amaechi is resting, why not Wike to go and rest, Wike should go and rest for god sake.
On the Oginigba Market, it appears that the people are reluctant to move into that market, I also know that there is Hypercity that took very large part of the market. How are you going to convince the people to come back?
Let me tell you that we have inaugurated committee to run that market, that was about two days ago and the committee has started making arrangement on how to allocate portions where people will do their businesses and you can go back there maybe Tuesday so you will see what is happening there.
The Hypercity you are talking about, the land they are occupying there is not their own, infact, as I speak to you they’ve packed all their goods out of that place because they’ve noticed that the real owners of the land have come to take over their properties. We have total control of our local government; Rivers people have rejected Wike.
Flood has sacked your people from their homes. I am not aware of any IDP centers, we’ve not seen nor heard that you have given palliative or even visited or said anything by way of sympathy or caution. What practical step have you taken to address the flood situation in Obio/Akpor?
We’ve formed the flood committee to liaise with the state government committee. Like I said two days ago, I have told them that the problem we are having in our local government is not that our local government is like Ahoada West or Abua; the flash points, people are building on unauthorized places, if you go to Rumuibekwe there is a house there on a waterway, you can’t even pass there. We have made recommendations to the state government that most of these buildings need to be pulled down for easy flow of water.
Now, if you go to Eneka adjoining Rukpokwu you will see somebody building on waterway; water is passing under, his house is ontop, these are the issues. We have done recommendations, we don’t have such powers as a local government, we are appealing to the state government to come in.
I have also directed the director of works; on no account should any building be approved without them visiting the site. Not that our local government is flooded these are the key issues, people are building on unauthorized places and we have told them to stop. We have also told our committee to reach out to those who are affected.
