The Rivers State government’s style of combating the Coronavirus pandemic is unique to the state. For supporters of the government, the style is fantastic but to critics, it is dictatorial, writes MIKE ODIEGWU.
Video of Governor Nyesom Wike preparing a local delicacy, okro soup, went viral on Monday. The governor, who wore a kitchen apron, was seen vigorously turning the soup and at the same time chatting with some persons, who maintained a reasonable distance.
Most persons, who viewed the video, were surprised. So, the Rivers State henchman has a soft side. Wike is a good cook.
The video started trending a day after Wike cooked a different kind of food for some persons, who allegedly violated his Executive Order against the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Unlike the okro soup, which may have left sweet memories in the taste buds of privileged persons, who savoured it, the food Wike served some persons at Eleme Local Government Area, has continued to upset many taste buds with sourness and bitterness.
The governor mowed down the Prodest Hotel, Alode, Eleme and Edemeteh Hotel, Onne. Bulldozers pulverised the facilities.
In fact, Wike personally supervised the destruction at Prodest Hotel. He insisted that laws must be obeyed. The demolition of the hotels has so far become the most controversial decision of the governor since he started waging a relentless war for the containment of Coronavirus pandemic in Rivers.
Tongues wagged when the governor arrested and detained pilots of Carveton Helicopters and their 10 passengers for flying into Rivers for some oil-related business without undergoing the compulsory COVID-19 protocol.
They were immediately arraigned and remanded in a hotel facility owned by the state government. Later following different interventions, the pilots and the oil workers were granted bail.
Wike struck again. His COVID-19 Taskforce impounded a bus-load of Exxon Mobil workers accusing them of entering into the state despite the governor’s order closing Rivers borders and without following the necessary protocol. They were sent to the state Isolation Centre but were later set free following some interventions.
The governor’s lockdown of the state especially Port Harcourt, the epicenter of commerce in the Southsouth, has been severer than similar measures in other states. The partial, complete, and full-blown lockdown has been the story of the capital city. Currently, the capital city has been on 24-hour curfew, which was eased recently for two days to enable residents to restock their foodstuffs.
Defaulters have not been spared either. Hundreds have been arrested, sent to the isolation centre and arraigned for violating the lockdown. Vehicles have been impounded with some articulated vehicles marked for auctioning.
Some of the vehicles beat the border to gain access to the state capital. To avoid what the governor has continuously termed sabotage of the border, Wike inaugurated local monitors and sent them to the border.
Though some of his decisions in fighting the invisible virus have been controversial, the pulling down of two hotels generated outrage from members of the public.
Can the governor’s action of demolishing two hotels in Eleme for violating his executive order ever be justified? What was the offence of the hotels?
A little is known in public about the particular offence that the Edemeteh Hotel committed to warrant its destruction.
But the Prodest Hotel, whose demolition the governor personally supervised has been accused of many violations. It operated against Wike’s directive that no such facility should be opened for business in the entire local government areas.
The hotel was said to have provided safe haven for criminals. Most pressing was the allegation that the owner of the hotel hired thugs to attack the Taskforce on COVID-19, which was there to enforce the governor’s directive.
In fact, Wike said some members of the Taskforce sustained injuries and others battling to survive in an undisclosed hospital.
The governor indicated that the PDP youth leader in the council, Mr. Princewill Osarojiji, led the thugs. He was immediately declared wanted with N5million and was later expelled from the party.
But sources said the destruction in Eleme was just a product of inter-party rivalry that has torn the local council apart. They claimed that the differences in the factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the management of the COVID-19 Taskforce in the area led to the development. Prodest was just a sacrificial lamb. The facility was caught in the crossfire.
Wike in a statewide broadcast insisted that the demolition of the two hotels in Eleme was done in line with extant laws explaining that the thugs severely injured some members of the task force.
He said: “We acted against the hotelier because apart from using the facility to jeopardise the lives of our citizens in violation of the extant law, the owner audaciously unleashed thugs lead by the Eleme Local Government Youth Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and inflicted severe injuries on our taskforce members who went to enforce the law against the continued operation of the hotel.
“As we speak, nobody knows the fate of the lives of most of the victims of that brazen and deadly attack given the severity of the head injuries they sustained.
And so, we’ve done no wrong as all our actions were taken in good faith and justified by, under and within the purview of the Executive Orders, which have neither been challenged nor set aside by any competent court of law.”
But the owner of the hotel faulted the position of the government. Promise Gogorodari, the Prodest Hotel owner, said he did nothing wrong lamenting that he erected the hotel to provide jobs for people.
He said the state government failed to do due diligence before pulling down his structure adding that he depended on the hotel to feed his family.
Lawyers and human rights activists condemned the action of the governor and called him all kinds of names, some unprintable.
They argued that the governor overreacted insisting that the action of Wike was like killing an ant with a sledgehammer. Some persons suggested that the governor should have either sealed the facilities or converted them to isolation centers.
A lawyer, Somina Johnbull, said Wike acted against the elementary principles of land acquisition saying the governor failed to follow the procedures outlined by the law.
He said: “It should be stated that there is no power under the Land Use Act to summarily demolish buildings even if the right of occupancy had been revoked. The Land Use Act is the Principal legislation on this subject matter even in Rivers State. The right to challenge the revocation must have been exercised before the hurried demolition.
“I recall in 2013/2014, the hotel of Mr. Felix Obuah in Omoku was to be acquired by the Amaechi Government, yet the Law was allowed to take its course. The provisions of the Land Use Act are not suspended or kept in abeyance even in times of emergency.
Governor Wike, who is a lawyer, is presumed to know the law and can be said to have deliberated infringed the law which he swore to uphold. This is really sad.
“Governor Wike should listen to the words of Thomas Fuller echoing down the hallway of history, 300 years ago, ‘be you never so high, the law is above you’.
This isn’t fighting the spread of Coronavirus, this is persecution. This is lawlessness. This is blight on the corporate existence of Rivers State. The spectacle is a paintbrush of shame.”
Also the President of Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative, Obiaruko Ndukwe, said the 2004 Quarantine Act did not in any way empower a state governor to demolish, confiscate or take over defaulter’s properties.
She said: “As at today COVID-19 has not been declared as a dangerous infectious disease in Nigeria. The President is yet to give notice as prescribed by the 2004 Act.
The Executive Order being used by some governors derive power from this Act and there is no part of the Act that prescribes such penalties as the ones which Governor Wike is meting out on the same people he vowed to protect their lives and properties.
“Section 5 is unambiguous. The penalty of N200 fine with the option of six months imprisonment or the fine plus imprisonment.
It has nothing to do with destroying properties that could have even been converted as Isolation Centres. The penalty by the governor under the guide of ‘Decree 006’ is alien to the Act.
“And no State Regulation can be superior to the Act from which it derived its power. There is an urgent need for the National Assembly to amend the Quarantine Law of 1929 while also halting the Laws of States which run contrary to that made by the President.”
But others rose to defend Wike and asked aggrieved persons to approach the court for redress. Former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Chief Onueze Okocha defended the actions of Wike saying they were appropriate.
Okocha advised persons uncomfortable with the Executive Orders, which the governor relied on to pull down the two hotels, to approach the courts.
Okocha lauded the steps taken by the governor to fight coronavirus insisting they were designed to check the spread of the virus. He said the state’s Quarantine Coronavirus (COVID 19) and other Infectious Diseases Regulations No. 2 of 2020 was in line with Quarantine Act of the Federal Government.
“Anybody that is arguing that the Executive Orders are unconstitutional should know his options. He should seek legal advice and if necessary go and challenge those orders in a court of law, duly constituted.
“I do not blame the governor for his action because I am aware that the regulation was put in place over two weeks ago for hoteliers and those operating drinking parlours and entertainment centres to close down at least temporarily until we get grip on how to deal this coronavirus pandemic.
“Yes, there was a regulation put in place long before now regarding the lockdown we have had in Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt City Local Government Areas. I hear that this happened in Eleme Local Government Area.
“Two hotels and they were warned to stop operating. Indeed, a taskforce was sent to remind them about the Executive Order put in place by the governor and they got their thugs and some local boys to beat members of the task force, so the Governor left with no other option wielded the big stick.”
Wike insisted that he did nothing wrong. He further explained why he took the decision. He said: “Government has no alternative but to apply the executive order, which I signed before the lockdown of Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt.
I called all the traditional rulers and council chairmen and told them to ensure that no hotel operates in the state. We are not saying it will be forever. This is for now so that we know where we are. To reduce the cases and check the spread.”
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