Play Fatherly Role, Eleme Youth Leader Begs Wike
3 min readEdith CHUKU
Following the panic in Rivers State resulting from the political crisis that erupted on Monday, the Publicity Secretary of the National Rescue Movement NRM, in the state, Mr. Olaka O. Olaka, has begged the FCT Minister, Chief Nyesom Wike, to sheathe his sword.
Olaka made this appeal in an exclusive interview with TNN, where he lamented the level of damages at the Eleme council secretariat.
The Eleme native told our correspondent that the fire outbreak from a device suspected to be a dynamite, which burnt the Eleme secretariat and some vehicles, caused panic in the community.
He expressed disappointment at the perpetrators of the act, urging them to demand employment from the government and their masters, order than been used to perpetrate evil in the state.
In his appeal to the immediate past governor of the state, Olaka urged Wike to, “sheath your sword, enough is enough, there is time for everything.
“He has been a governor for eight years, we didn’t see these kind of dramas that we are seeing, we didn’t see this kind of intimidation and provocation, we didn’t see this from other governors who led before him.
“I will appeal to him that there is an end to everything and at this time, he should be playing the role of a statesman, he should be playing the role of a father, he should allow Rivers State to develop. He has led, he should allow the young ones to have opportunity to also lead.”
He explained that, “From Eleme local government there was fire outbreak at the council secretariat following an attack by some hoodlums. They attacked the secretariat early hours of Monday morning and got the secretariat burnt down, vehicles were destroyed and properties around.
“Obviously, they are people loyal to the FCT Minister, it’s not as if they are not known, they are known faces. If a bird cries in the night and a baby dies in the morning you do not need a mirror to see what is already in your hand, and so, we don’t need to start pretending as if we do not know what has happened.
“Nyesom Wike had promised to put fire in some states, in where any governor interferes into the affairs of Rivers State and naturally, before you put fire in anybody’s state you should have enough fire in your own hand, so, it’s just clear that the man who promised to put fire in other states is trying to show the people, those other governors that he has enough fire by first of all, charity they say begins at home, so he is practicalising or showing us.
“Though they tried to say that it was just a phrase, it was symbolic, that it was not a physical fire but you can see that, those of us who have analyzed it from the practical perspective, you can see for free now, that it wasn’t a phrase, that it was an action that he promised to take and today, there is a practical fire in Rivers State, burning council secretariats.”
Olaka added that tension has been heightened because of the incident. “there was panic, you couldn’t have woken up in the morning to see sporadic gunshots, hear gunshots and people running here and there and there won’t be panic but the Council Chairman, Chief Brain Gokpa has stepped in, the youths of Eleme have risen up and we have also moved to the council.
“Though we don’t have anywhere to operate from because the place have been actually sealed for about three months now, the council premises is over grown with grasses, the council secretariat is burnt down but we have gone to the place to look at what happened.”