One-on-One Network, a group, has expressed concern about Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, appointing 14,319 people just months before the 2023 elections.
The group claimed that the appointments were wholly political and intended to incite unrest in the state prior to and during the election.
One-on-One Network’s director general, LoveGod Nweze, made this claim in a statement released on Wednesday and provided to Port Harcourt news media.
Nweze warned said aside from the 14,000 advisers for various political units in the state, Wike also appointed 319 Ward Liaison officers.
He alleged that the sudden appointment when there have been several calls on the governor to employ people was a cover-up to unleash men that will do his bidding in the build-up to the elections.
Nweze further said the move was to hire known thugs and cultists as advisers to begin to intimidate members of the opposition political parties, especially coming on the heels of the pronouncement of Executive Order 21 by the governor to ’emasculate perceived political opponents.
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He urges security agencies to resist any lure to compromise due process to be tools and agents for a political witch hunt.
The statement reads, “We advise them to beam their searchlights on this wave of banditry and merchants of violence disguised as 14,319 recruits being primed to be unleashed on the political landscape.’
“We have been witnesses to executive rascality and abuse of office as being exhibited by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State especially as it relates to the forthcoming General elections.
“First, he pronounced and signed what we considered Decree 21, only fashionable and workable in a Military Junta and not the democracy we professed to be practicing, which mandates political parties to get near-impossible government approval for political activities after paying as high as a non-refundable N5 million per activities.
“This is clearly intended to frustrate the activities of perceived political opponents and other political parties.”
Nweze recalls that Wike had in 2015 when he contested to be governor was up-in-arms against the then Governor Rotimi Amaechi but was not prevented from using any of the state-owned facilities for his political activities.
“Tuesday’s appointment of over 14, 000 persons by the Governor is another illustration that the Governor’s intention is a subterfuge towards unleashing political violence in Rivers State ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“We have it from source that these persons are well-known cultists and thugs. Also, why will the governor be desperate to bring further opprobrium to the state by wasting scarce resources on frivolities when our parents are still being owed, denied their pensions and gratuities and our various communities are yearnings for developments?
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“A larger part of our state has been submerged by floods, yet the governor has not deemed it necessary to intervene. Rather he is focused on clout chasing, unleashing violence, and other inanities.
“Rivers people do not deserve to bear the brunt of Wike’s frustrations being so recklessly expressed and exhibited in the tissues of irrational and uncoordinated actions and policies arising from his dual defeats in his Presidential and Vice Presidential bids.
“This is quite reprehensible and requires the urgent intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari, alleged renowned thugs, and cultists as advisers’.
“We, therefore, call on President Muhammadu Buhari, the Independent National Electoral Commission, International communities, Civil Society organiSations and others to call the Rivers State Governor to order not to set the state ablaze.
“Not even President Buhari, who has wider and larger jurisdictions as has appointed that number of persons in one fell swoop.
“In fact, it has never happened in the history of the country be it State or national,” it added.
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