Fubara vows to implement reports of Rivers post-election violence

Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has vowed to implement the recommendations of the seven-man judicial commission of enquiry which investigated the post-election violence in the state.

Governor Fubara had braved to conduct local elections in the oil-rich state despite the police refusing to provide security for the exercise.

Mr Fubara’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), boycotted the election in solidarity with the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, who is at loggerheads with Mr Fubara.

A faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state led by Mr Wike loyalist Tony Okocha also boycotted the exercise.

Notwithstanding, the election went ahead, and Mr Fubara’s loyalists, who contested on the platform of a relatively unknown Action Peoples Party, won 22 of the 23 local council chairmanship seats while the Action Alliance candidate, another relatively unknown party, won one.

On 6 October, a day after the election, Mr Fubara swore into office the elected chairpersons.

The following day, on 7 October, some hoodlums set ablaze the local government council secretariats in Emohua, Ikwerre, and Eleme, prompting the governor to set up a panel to investigate the arsons.

Nobody is above the law – Fubara

Speaking at Government House on Tuesday while receiving the panel reports, Mr Fubara vowed to implement the panel recommendations and emphasised that nobody was above the law.

This is contained in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday by Mr Fubara’s spokesperson, Chukwudi Nelson.

“We are not going to be part of any system that would encourage any destruction in this State. And for that reason, we had to inaugurate this commission so that this commission should look into the remote and immediate causes of this problem.

“And I believe that the recommendations of this commission, with the help of God and the support of everyone, we will make sure that we implement the recommendations.

“We are going to take it to the next stage. The report will be presented to the Executive Council, and there, we will surely come out with the White Paper. And with the White Paper, I can assure you that we are going to follow it to the end.

“Nobody is above the law, including me. So, provided what we are doing is within the confines of the law, we will do it with the help of everyone,” Mr Fubara said.

Mr Fubara said he has never and will never be a party to violence in the state and vowed to ensure that he put a stop to “such unreasonable violence”

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He commended the panel members for their boldness in accomplishing the task despite the physical and legal threats.

Speaking earlier, the panel’s chairperson, Roseline Minakiri, said they had compiled their findings, including the recommendations, into four volumes.

“We have four volumes of the report here. We have the memoranda, which we got after we made our publications.

“We also have the exhibits that came with the memoranda. We have the proceedings and the records. At the end of the day, we came up with the main report.”

The panel chairperson advised that the recommendations of the report should be studied and implemented so that people can be deterred from such callous acts.