I admit that I have raised a loaded issue, with no expectation of a satisfactory applause from his excellency governor Nyesom Wike or any member of his cabinet. However, this is a candid expression of my frustration with his excellency's politics of self-interest parading as nothing but dangerous deception.
Politics is the institution for managing the affairs of a community for the safety and well-being of its people, as such it is a noble venture for noble men worthy only of selfless patriots.
The Rivers State Amnesty Committee was created by governor Wike to mitigate against the high rate of crime and cultism in the State as stated by the government during the inauguration of Committee members. The Committee was saddled with the responsibility of identifying, contacting and persuading assumed cultists and their arrowheads to surrounder military hardware, ammunitions and high tech explosives in exchange for State unconditional pardon.
With the combination of treachery and deception, More than 22,430 Cultists peacefully Surrendered Arms and embraced Amnesty in Rivers State according to the State Amnesty Committee. The government said it has also disbanded all vigilante groups in the state with directives to the security agencies to take charge of scrutinising such groups. Wike described the Amnesty Programme as very successful having recovered more than 29,891 assorted high calibre military hardware, 27,861 assorted ammunitions of military classification and 35,197 high profile C-4 explosives from our repented brothers. Okay I am forced to say kudos to the government and it's Amnesty Committee. They did marvelously well.
However, everybody can not be deceived at the same time, the Beam News of Friday 28th October, 2016 issued the first public outcry; vehemently describing the Amnesty program as a huge deceptive decoy. After that outcry and others, I knew something was not right, the above is the true reality that stares us in the face. What has changed then and now other than a carefully orchestrated covert squad commissioned to unleash mayhem during electioneering and election periods.
This petrifying truth I trust will attract negative reproach particularly from a section of the society who believes power and authority are their prerogative birthright.
The Transformation:
Grassroot Development Initiative (GDI) an offshoot of PDP and governor Wike's political game plan, was ostensibly designed to carry out covert but extremely high profile assignments during electioneering and election periods. They're a conglomerate of those who care-less about restorative governance, rather they're assemblage of diverse orientation with primary objective of aiding and abetting incompetence, thuggery, looting, wastage, bastardisation of norms and values of electoral process and deception.
The Wike government is pushing the rhetorical boundaries hard in preparatory to the 2019 elections.
Rivers people must never allow themselves to be suckered again by the rhetorical duplicity of the well-oiled Wike's GDI arms squad tagged "neighborhood watch". The Neighborhood watch is a total aberration, it is transfusion of the old GDI.
As Internationally accepted standard and practice, arms recovered /surrounded during amnesty program are usually displayed and destroyed in full glare of the public, even visually transmitted live.
Confiscated arms are never stored or preserved for further use, it is reckless abuse of power and gross violation of arms proliferation laws of Nigeria to do so.
The fundamental questions asked are; why were the surrounded weapons not destroyed publicly? Why the intended hasty establishment of a neighborhood watch outfit within these period of campaigns and 2019 elections?.
My summation:
The "Neighborhood watch" is simply a covert civilian security outfit backed by governor Wike and populated by GDI members across the State. Their primary responsibility is to identify, isolate, imbibe absolute fear and annihilate selected opposition "Marks". This squad is already intensively training in the use of military hardware and covert operations. With operational cells scattered around the 23 LGA of Rivers State.
To say that Wike's main motive of itching to establish the neighborhood watch was borne out of his desire to install total security in the State is factually inaccurate, misleading and deceptive in all ramifications. Certainly, what kills a State faster than "corruption" are treachery against the people, deception, incompetence and bigotry, which sadly define Wike's government.
Basically, GDI has been a dormant group till date, they have not been proactive in opposition views and criticisms which means they exist for one purpose "disruption of electoral processes during elections" for the sustainment of PDP power in 2019.
Prove me wrong if you can.
~Rowland Orlu wrote from Port Harcourt.
