A coalition of civil society organisations, media professionals and concerned citizens has warned that Rivers State is sliding into a full-blown political breakdown.
They accuse powerful political actors of state capture, electoral fraud and the collapse of democratic governance.
This was contained in a communiqué issued after an emergency stakeholders’ meeting held in Port Harcourt to review what participants described as an “existential threat” to the peace and stability of the state.
The communiqué was signed on behalf of the stakeholders by The Citizens Platform, with Celestine Akpobari and Kentebe Ebiriador as signatories.
According to the stakeholders, the political crisis – linked to the rivalry involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Rivers State Governor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and Governor Siminalayi Fubara – has paralysed governance “and plunged the state into unprecedented tension and uncertainty.
“The impasse is driven by naked ambitions of state capture and resource control,” the communiqué stated, adding that governance in Rivers State has been “effectively suspended” while political actors battle for survival and dominance.
The stakeholders traced the roots of the crisis to “the absence of internal party democracy, the dominance of money politics, and the weakening of key institutions such as the Presidency, INEC, security agencies and the judiciary.”
