Rivers: Group blasts Amaewhule-led lawmakers over call for arrest of CTC Chairmen

By Jude Opara

A pro-democracy group, the People’s Congress, loyal to the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara has lambasted the Martin Amaewhule-led faction of the state House of Assembly for calling for the arrest of the chairmen and members of the 23 Local Government Caretaker Committees in the state.
It would be recalled that the 27 lawmakers loyal to Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike had called on the Nigeria Police Force to arrest the Caretaker chairmen of the LGAs.
The call followed the recent ruling of the Supreme Court, which granted financial autonomy to LGs across the country and stopped governors from appointing caretaker chairmen.
It can be recalled that the Rivers State LG caretaker chairmen were appointed by Governor Fubara prior to the Supreme Court ruling.
Reacting to the call for arrest, the pro-democracy group stated that lawmakers “are calling for anarchy in the state”, urging the law enforcement agencies to ignore them.
“It’s obvious that Martin Amaewhule and his co-travellers are still brooding over the loss of their membership of the Rivers State Assembly following their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.
“Their call is tantamount to calling for anarchy. We urge the good officers and men of the Nigeria Police and other law enforcement agencies to disregard the call of the saboteurs pretending to be lawmakers.
“They are out to destabilise Rivers State and should be completely ignored or better still, arrested for attempting to incite anarchy in the state”, the statement added.