APC stalwart begs Wike to convene summit on insecurity
Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-South region, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has advised the Governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, to urgently convene a peace, security and reconciliation summit for the overall interest and genuine peace of Rivers state and its people.
In a press statement he released on Sunday, Chief Eze said that the summit must be aimed at studying and proffering solutions to what he described as the seeming intractable security situation across the state.
Chief Eze charged the Gov. Wike-led administration in the state to “leave aside its ego and allow reason guides its decisions at this critical point by dusting the security blueprint for the state prepared by previous administrations, restart its implementation and save everybody from the ongoing needless waste of lives and properties across the state.”
Also, he charged Gov. Wike to stop prevaricating and stay true to his desire for the restoration of peace, imploring him not to engage in victimizing and witch-hunt of political opponents.
On the need to pay an urgent attention to the security situation in the state, Eze alleged that the reports going out of Rivers state in the last few years had been most unpleasant, noting that “any lover of Rivers state must be worried by the tales of woe and the level of insecurity in the state at the moment.
“Every day, it is either a bus conveying passengers is kidnapped or people are being killed and beheaded or that foreigners and investors are rushing out of the state in droves or the state is rated as the number one state in Nigeria that harbours the highest number of unemployed youth.”
“No doubt, our state has endured a tortuous political season, which saw political parties jostle and cajole Rivers people to make choices.
Our state, which was known and respected as the treasure base of the nation, is now almost always in the news for the wrong reasons. This is not the Rivers state of our dreams.”
He therefore, advised that to achieve lasting peace in the state, the governor must as a matter of urgency convoke a peace, security and reconciliation summit, involving key Christian leaders, traditional rulers, key political leaders, youth and women leaders, security experts and elders from all over the state.
The summit he said, would be expected to point out why the state descended into its present sad situation and proffer suggestions on the ways forward to restore lasting peace in the state.
