The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, early on Friday morning, sacked his embattled Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Opunabo Inko-Tariah.
Inko-Tariah, who is also the Publisher of Port Harcourt-based Hard Truth newspaper, on a local radio at 10 a.m., claimed that he resigned, alleging that Wike starved his office of funds and refused to take his advice.
Phone lines of Inko-Tariah were switched off at the time of writing this report.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the suit filed by Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, challenging the jurisdiction of the state governorship election petition tribunal to hear a petition filed against his election by the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate in the April 11 gubernatorial poll, Dakuku Peterside.
The tribunal on Saturday nullified the election and ordered a fresh poll within 90 days.
Wike, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the poll, had said in his petition that the tribunal which sat in Abuja had no jurisdiction over matters that transpired in Rivers State.
He insisted that the tribunal should have conducted its activities in Rivers and not in Abuja.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State whose election was nullified on Saturday will appeal against the judgment of the Election Petition Tribunal.
He disclosed his decision to newsmen at the Port Harcourt International Airport, on arrival from Abuja.
“ What I can say is that the tribunal has given it own verdict, but we know that by the special grace of God, that is not the verdict of God. Nobody can take your mandate, “ he said.
According to Wike, his lawyer will appeal against the judgment and if need be, the case would get to the Supreme Court.
He said he was convinced that he had a good case, noting that in Lagos, one of the grounds that the PDP governorship candidate went to court was the issue of card reader.
“So, I want to urge you to be calm and be peaceful; I am still the governor of Rivers State.
“Our lawyers are going on appeal; we are all going on appeal. There is also the Supreme Court. We believe that we have a good case, “ he said.
The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has hailed the judgement of the State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which on Saturday annulled the election of Chief Nyesom Wike as the winner of the April 11, 2015 governorship poll in the State.
In a statement issued in Port Harcourt and signed by its Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya immediately after the Tribunal judgement on Saturday, the APC said the election in Rivers State was a sham and that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) erred in declaring Wike governor.
“ We repeat that there is no way under the heavens that Chief Wike can beat our candidate, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, in a free and fair election.
“ Though, we were expecting total ban of Chief Nyesom Wike from further participation in the politics of Nigeria seeing the orchestration of the number of death of Rivers State people in order for him to be installed as a Care-Taker Governor all the same we thank the Justice Mohammed Ambrusa-led Tribunal for restoring hope to the downtrodden people of Rivers State who have borne the brunt of Wike’s illegal and visionless administration in the past five months” the party stated.
“We thank the Tribunal for allowing itself to be used by God to uproot the impostor governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, who has these past five months brought monumental suffering to our people in cahoots with some mischievous and misguided politicians whose only understanding of governance is blackmailing and the looting of our common patrimony,”
The APC lamented that “Wike’s tragic entry into the Brick House seat of power has only succeeded to bring back criminality in various forms in the once peaceful Rivers State as kidnapping, robbery and organised crimes have being on the increase since his evil arrival.”
The Rivers State governorship election petition tribunal has sacked the state’s governor, Nyesom Wike, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The tribunal, in a judgment delivered in Abuja, upheld the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in the April 11 election the state, Dakuku Peterside, challenging the declaration of Wike as winner of the election.
The tribunal chairman, Justice Mohammed Ambrosa, in the judgment that lasted over two hours, held that the petitioners proved that the election that produced Wike “did not substantially comply with the Electoral Act.”
The tribunal ordered a rerun election within 90 days.
Nyesom Wike, Rivers governor, seems morphing from the wike wike brag-fest, in his unending battle with Chubuike Amaechi, his predecessor; to a seasoned “curser”, perhaps in office but not yet in power?
Or how else does Hardball interpret this headline in the August 17 issue of The Nation: “Wike: God’ll disgrace those plotting against my government? O, you think it is rather a negative prayer than a positive curse? Maybe! But to what ends?
Mr. Wike was reported to have prayed the prayer or cursed the curse at a crusade, in Port Harcourt, of the Lord’s Chosen Renewal Charismatic Ministry, at which the ministry’s general overseer, Pastor Lazarus Muoka, was tending to the flock.
An ecstatic Wike went on memory lane, underscoring his faith in the religious body with yet another curse — or well, something close to it. It was at a previous Chosen crusade, he recalled with glee, that he volunteered that if indeed he was a cultist, he should not win the election. So, because he won the election, the rumours that alleged he was one was false, halleluiah! How about that for circular (il)logic!
And the gubernatorial triumphalism, above the din of brethren’s roar! “The way the God of the Lord’s Chosen did it on April 11, that is how he will do it again!” Amen? Hardball would imagine. Aaammeeeeeen!!! The flock would thunder, putting the gubernatorial child of God in the true and proper mood for his negative prayer or positive curse.
“Those who are fighting and plotting to truncate the lifespan of the mandate freely given to me by the people of Rivers State,” there you have it, “will be disgraced by the God of the Lord’s Chosen”! Hmmnnn, might that peculiar God, customised to “the Lord’s Chosen”, be partisan too? And a Wike supporter to boot? Ah!
Trust politicians to steal one on their opponents. But trust clerics too to be savour projecting influence, no matter how seeming inappropriate. It is rare bragging rights in Nigerian Pentecostalism, in the daily combat for market share to win souls! It is the gripping daily drama that makes Nigeria such a never-boring prospect for the media person.
But more seriously, beyond the drama: would any conscientious human, let alone of God, countenance the reported brutal harvest of lives and limbs, the virtual wiping out of whole families, the forced exile of many more, in the macabre show that passed for the Rivers elections? Of course, Hardball is in no place to judge, which of the parties in the election disputes is right or wrong. The election tribunals are doing that; and soon enough, they should be out with their verdict.
But from media reports during the elections, how can anyone so casually link God’s name — and with wanton triumphalism to boot! — to what the media and election monitors painted as a clear debacle?
Given the ugly turn of events during the Rivers election, beyond the winners and the vanquished, what the Rivers people need is closure: the victims’ right to go back to their shattered lives; and a responsible government’s duty to be sensitive to that right.
That was what Mr Wike tragically missed at his crusade triumphalism; and the collateral damage he inflicted on a perfectly legitimate crusade, even if the cleric himself should have impressed on the governor the imperative for tact, at such a delicate juncture.
By the way, a parting shot: why does Governor Wike curse so throatily — to underscore that, until the tribunals rule, he is just in office but far away from power? Ah!
Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike, on Thursday, approved the appointment of Prof. Blessing Didia as the acting Vice Chancellor of the state’s University of Science and Technology.
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the governor, Mr Opunabo Inko-Tariah, announced this in a statement in Port Harcourt.
Inko-Tariah said that Wike also approved the appointment of Prof. Boma Oruwari as acting Deputy Vice Chancellor of the institution.
The statement said that the approval of the appointments was in exercise of the governor’s powers as Visitor to the university.
“Both appointments are sequel to the expiration of the tenure of Prof. Barineme Fakae as Vice -Chancellor and are with effect from July 31, 2015,’’ it said
[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ust like his Ekiti counterpart, Governor Nyesom Wike is one of the few people in Nigerian politics who should not be burdened with high office. His handling of the task of education minister was such a scandal that it was obvious that GEJ – no superior himself – had thrust an illiterate in charge of churning out persons of letters. He might have gone to school and evinced a measure of articulation. But his is education without culture. That was why Leo Tolstoy launched a campaign “to educate the educated.”
His latest iniquity was a parody of Jesus when he promised to come back like a thief in the night. Wike decided to do his own in broad daylight. He paid two shameless visits to the Chief Justice of the Federation, Mahmoud Muhammed. The CJN understood the integrity of his office and the compromise that the governor’s call implied for the promise of justice in the land. He promptly made it public.
Wike quickly clutched at straws to defend himself. He said he wanted to discuss the state of Rivers State renewal of the acting chief judge position. He said he was not there to influence the man over the ongoing case between him and Peterside Dakuku on the governor poll.
As they say in my village, “talk another thing.” Does he know he is governor? Does he know that a governor should understand what is called conflict of interest? If, as he claims in his release, that he belongs to the body of benchers, who taught him law and how roguish were his teachers? Did he not know what due process was? Why did he have to visit twice and fail before he knew what he should have done in the first place? That is, write a letter.
If he did not understand it, the CJN knows. He knows that corruption charges have hung over the judiciary in matters of election adjudication. If Wike (clumsily spelt Wilke in his own advertorial) did not know that, then he should not be in that position. Due process, especially in matters of justice, is sacrosanct. Tears for Wike!
He stated that he visited the CJN as “a member of the Body of Benchers.” So was it not Wike the governor who visited but Wike the member of body of benchers. The letter he eventually wrote, was it written as a member of the Body of Benchers or as governor?
On what authority does a member of the Body of Benchers go to the CJN to resolve issues about the chief judge of Rivers State? He can’t answer these questions without exposing his mediocrity and lack of goodwill for the law.
In any decent society, Wike would quit his perch as governor. But the man who acted as a boor as minister and irritant now as governor does not know better than harass and threaten journalists in advertorials over his own wrongdoing.
A bomb went off near federal high court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Thursday but nobody was killed in the incident.
The blast occurred when the court was about to rule on whether elections for certain local government officials earlier this year were legal, Reuters says.
“I think they were trying to disrupt the result, the high court decided that the election was illegal,” Reuters quoted Governor Nyesom Wike as saying on the incident.
“It (the blast) was close to the high court, nobody was killed and it didn’t affect the building.”
