By Jerry Emmanson
A group of women under the umbrella, Women Arise for Justice has charged the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari to question the Governor of Rivers state, Chief Nyesom Wike, over many lives that were lost as a result of violence in the just concluded re-run election in the state.
The group also want the Federal Government to launch investigation into the abduction and the eventual killing of an army Colonel, Samaila Inusa in Kaduna on Tuesday.
The over 1000 women who stormed the Presidential villa in Abuja during a peaceful protest said all the deaths, abduction ,intimidation and destruction of property were the product of the do or die politics that featured during the last Rivers state re-run election.
The National President of the group, Jummai Samuel Pukat who led the protest said the Governor should be held responsible for all the atrocities since his body language and utterance directly constitute instruction to his political killers to deal with those not on the same side as him.
According to her, “It was Governor Wike who threatened that there are areas that people from the federal level cannot access in the state. It was him who said anyone coming from outsider Rivers state for the re-run must first write their will, which implies that he was confident of how to make sure federal agents do not make it out of Rivers state alive”
She called that all that died in the Rivers state re-run must not die in vain, adding that those who lost their properties must be reassured that there is still a government and that it enforces the law.
“Our sons, brothers, husband and fathers cannot be continually cut down in their prime with the federal government remaining indifferent simply because their murder took place in Wike‘s Rivers state.
“We cannot wait until more governors join in this killing spree. We dare not contemplate what will happen if Wike’s approach to treating human life becomes the new normal. As mothers we no longer have the ability to sleep at night when our loved ones have to undertake even the most basic assignment in Rivers state,” he said.
Pukat said the deafening silence from the federal government has made Wike to continue insulting and assaulting our sensibilities with lies meant to shift the blame for the killings of others.
She said history will not be kind to them if the memory of the dead is so desecrated with lies “ Our hearts bleed Mr. President. We are worried and confused and we ask if Rivers state is still part of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
