“Don’t Wake Up The Lion In Niger Delta”

By Anabs Sara Igbe

Following the February 28th judgement of the Supreme Court as it affects Rivers State,  High Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, Elder Statesman and Niger Delta Activist Warns of a grave gathering storm

Well, the Rivers State crisis is not meant to be a crisis.  It is just that one man wants to take over the resources of Rivers and control the State and control it.

He wants to behave like Tinubu in Lagos.

Rivers State people are behind (Governor) Sim Fubara to say no godfather; nobody should take control of Rivers State resources. Except the legitimately elected Governor and his team, things should work well. We don’t want a situation where one man will be building flyovers only in his Local Government.

We want to make sure that Rivers State is developed and Sim is developing Rivers State; he is developing all the State, he is not developing only a section of the State.

We are not in support of what is happening in Rivers State. The Rivers State Elders are not in support. The men and women of Rivers State are not in support.The people of Rivers State are not in support of what Wike and his team are doing.

Be that as it may, Supreme Court has given its judgment. They are the Apex law body in the country, but let us objectively look at the Supreme Court judgement.

I am not a Lawyer. But, first, you are dissolving a Local Government Election and you are citing the electoral Act of 2022.

If you read the first page of the electoral act, it is clear that the Law is meant for the Federal and State Elections. Then it said the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja. These are the three bodies the laws are meant for.

These Laws are not meant for the Local Government in the States, and you did not look at the LG laws and you are just passing your judgement based on that. it shows that they are biased, or they are compromised.

Nobody can question the Supreme Court, but God will question the Supreme Court.  That shows that they are biased. What they are doing is to cage the Governor and twist him to do what they want him to do. That is what they are trying to do, and I am saying that this matter is not only Wike. We can see the hand of Mr. President in it, otherwise, this is not the type of judgment  we expected.

We are also  expecting the the Supreme Court will reverse itself on the issue of this Election.  They have passed judgement in Rivers State, Ebonyi State, Ondo State, even Kogi State and other states in the country, that when you leave the party to another party as an elected member of the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate, you automatically lose your seat.

Section 109 G is very clear. We are expecting the Supreme Court to reverse itself that the law is no longer relevant. They have done that in the past and I pray that they don’t truncate this democracy.

That judgement is asking for anarchy in Rivers State so that they can declare a State of Emergency in Rivers State. They should realize that Rivers State is the Capital of South South and all Niger Delta.

Anything happening in Rivers State affects everybody, and if we decide today there will be no oil in Nigeria again, as they are not giving us allocation, Nigeria will not get allocation, it will be done.

But we have a peaceful Governor that is saying it hasn’t gotten to that; take it easy. But if they continue this way, there is no way the Niger Delta, if the Governor approves or not, that we will not force them not to take our Oil.  If you can stop us from spending our money, you too will not spend, but it hasn’t gotten to that.  I strongly believe that the Niger Delta is watching.

PANDEF has spoken, the highest body in Niger Delta has spoken, and have advised the Supreme Court to reverse itself. Let us see how it plays out. I pray we will not get to a stage when the Niger Delta will wake up and say NO.

We can see what is happening in Kano. Kano was tensed that time, we don’t want to go that route. Our Governor is peaceful and we don’t want to go that process.

But if they push us to the wall, we will fight back amd say NO, we won’t accept it.

In Rivers State, you cannot hand-twist us. For emphasis, before the judgment, Wike had been boasting that the Supreme Court will give him judgement and no surprises, he got it.

A Man who have been boasting got the judgement, and if you look at it, the judgement he got isn’t consistent with the law.

I just gave you one aspect of the law. We are looking at the Supreme Court; we are looking at Mr President to intervene in this issue as a matter of urgency before it gets to the boiling point, because if it gets to the boiling point, you can arrest me, but that also doesn’t solve the problem; you can kill me, but that also doesn’t solve the problem; the Niger Delta will wake up. You are pushing the Lion in the Niger-Delta to wake up, and if the Niger Delta Lion wakes up, Nigeria will not be the same.

We are Nigerians, and we believe in one Nigeria, that is why we allow our Oil to go. But you will not stop us from benefitting from our Oil and you are tapping our resources.

If Sim says No, and I also say No, the Creek will say Yes.

The Creek is angry; the people in the Creek are angry. We are only telling them to calm down. The Governor is saying peace and we are following the Governor to say peace. Otherwise, Nigeria will know that the Niger Deltans are not happy.

We are angry with the type of Law and Judgment they gave because we see no reason why this kind of judgment will be given.

The most important question is that the defection started in Local Governments. Local Government has gone to the Supreme Court, what is stopping the Defection Case from going to that level.

You are oppressing everybody; you want to kill the truth; you cannot oppress everybody. I pray peace will continue to be in Niger Delta on the request of our Governor.