Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has voiced his disappointment with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), stating that the party has let him and his supporters down.
Governor Fubara, who was elected on the PDP platform a year ago, made this remark during a meeting with the Senate Committee on Privatisation, led by Senator Orji Kalu, at the government house in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
Senator Abba Moro, a former Minister of Interior and a PDP leader, was among the committee members present. Governor Fubara humorously informed the Benue politician that he would not follow party protocols, highlighting that the party had failed the state.
He stated that he and his supporters in Rivers State were now operating as a movement to defend democracy, rather than as members of a political party.
Governor Fubara also addressed the political crisis in the state.
His remarks came after an explosive device was detonated by a man in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
Reports state that the unidentified man attempted to blow up the Presidential Hotel, a prominent hospitality facility in the state. The police later arrested the suspect.
Governor Fubara, commenting on the incident, said the attacker had targeted the hotel, which housed high-profile individuals, including members of the Senate committee, in an attempt to justify the call for imposing a state of emergency in the state.
He said, “The idea was that as you heard the state of emergency, it will 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 you were in Rivers State, that you saw what happened.
“But you see, when you are with God, even your own child who is planning evil, will go and tell somebody that God is with this man because he is clean, this is what my father is planning. That is what is keeping us in this State”.
The Rivers State Governor expressed concern over the apparent inaction of the law against offenders, suggesting that certain individuals seemed to be above the law regarding tenure elongation issues. He noted that tenure extension for former local government chairmen had not been a matter of contention anywhere else in the country.
Governor Fubara emphasized that he was not engaging in personal battles but was instead defending the state against those who seek to exploit it. He stated that he was protecting the interests of Rivers State and its supporters from those who believed they had control over others’ lives.