By Charles Igbo
“May thunder fire you and your ultimatum” – Wike
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, was at his most ungubernatorial and unpresidential state on Sunday May 8, 2022.
Blunt, not known to tolerate nonsense, brash and hardly suffers fools gladly, he invoked thunder on some of his subjects. It was inside a Church. And the irony of that, cursing in the house of God, was not lost on the congregation.
Wike was making a routine speech in Church as protocol demands, at times. At a point, he veered off, when he remembered his spat with a House of Representatives member, Farah Dagogo.
Dagogo incurred Wike’s anger when thugs disrupted a screening exercise in Porthacourt to choose candidates for various elective positions in 2023. Wike put the blame on Dagogo. He said it was Dagogo who organized the thugs to disrupt the exercise.
When he accused Dagogo of complicity, he also declared him wanted, and ordered the Police to arrest him.
Dagogo, a Governorship aspirant, vehemently, denied the allegation. But that did not stop the Police from carrying out the Governor’s order.
24 hours later, Dagogo was arrested by the Police in an embarrassing manner. He was arrested at the venue of the Governorship Screening Exercise where he had gone to be screened.
Since then – eight days and counting – he has been in Police custody. Taken to Court, the Magistrate said his Court had no jurisdiction over Dagogo’s case. Reports say he has, allegedly, fallen sick in custody, and rushed to the hospital.
Since then, a number of people have asked Wike to get Dagogo released.
One of them is Dr Dakuku Peterside, a former Director General of NIMASA. He and his group gave Wike a 48-hour ultimatum to release Dagogo. That has since expired. Wike neither acknowledged their threat, nor has Peterside done anything. Then, there is Lady Anniko Briggs who, in an article, asked Wike to release Dagogo and urged the PDP to give Dagogo a chance to be screened as soon as he is released. Wike ignored Briggs.
However, it was the 48-hour ultimatum given to him by the Ijaw National Congress, INC, to release Dagogo that got at Wike.
In his reaction to the INC ultimatum, Wike mocked them. He told INC members they didn’t know who they were dealing with. That they didn’t know who they were given ultimatum to, and just in case they forgot, it is Wike. He asked why they should fight Government. He said all they would have done was to come to him and Government and ask what happened.
“Thunder fire you and your ultimatum”, he thundered, to the obvious shock and amusement of the congregation.
Not a few people admit that Dagogo is rough and brash.” “He and Wike behave alike”, a source told this medium. But they also allege that Dagogo’s crime was going to purchase the Governorship aspiration forms, independent of Wike.
Alleged a source: You cannot purchase the forms without getting clearance from him.”
Both Wike and Dagogo, from the riverine area of the State, are of the same party – PDP.
