Rivers State governor, Siminalaye Fubara, has said protesters loyal to his opponents were responsible for the dynamite explosion near the Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt, in order to force a state of emergency in the state.
Fubara made the claim on Wednesday, when he received a delegation of the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation at the Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
The delegation was led by Orji Uzoh Kalu, chairman of the committee and former Abia State governor.
An explosion was said to have occurred on Tuesday near the Hotel Presidential, during a protest march by some political leaders in support of the police operatives occupying the 23 Rivers local council secretariats. Some protesters were reportedly injured in the explosion.
Police operatives have been occupying headquarters of the Local Government Areas, following the crisis that ensued over the replacement of tenure of former chairpersons.
Speaking on the development, Fubara said the protesters knew that the visiting senators were staying at the Hotel Presidential.
The Rivers governor alleged that the protesters attempted to detonate the dynamite, so that the senators could support the call for the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers.
“As a matter of fact, let me tell you, I know everything that is happening. Yesterday (Tuesday), they (the protesters) were aware that you were in the state,” Fubara was quoted in a statement by Nelson Chukwudi, his chief press secretary.
“So, there was an attempt to create a serious problem. In fact, there was a plan to detonate dynamite at the Hotel Presidential because you people were there.
“But this God that we serve, it happened that the man who was trying to do it detonated it, but just a few seconds after, it blew his hands off.
“The idea was that as you were hearing the state of emergency, it would be so that by the time they finish when you return to have your sitting tomorrow (Thursday), the debate will be from somebody from this state who called you people to tell you not to come.
“He will now raise the issue of a state of emergency and say, after all, distinguished colleagues saw it happen while they were in Rivers state, that they saw what happened.”
Fubara said there is nowhere in the country where tenure elongation for elected local government chairpersons has been an issue.
On his part, Kalu said members of the committee were in the state to carry out oversight duties on some projects under their purview.
The senator commended the Rivers governor for being peaceful, while calling on Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to stealth his sword.
