Rivers State Governor and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential hopeful Nyesom Wike on Sunday rained down curses on members of two Ijaw groups demanding the release of a federal lawmaker currently detained by the governor’s order.
Farah Dagogo, a member of the House of Representatives, representing the Degema/Bonny federal constituency of Rivers State, has been in police custody for a couple of weeks.
Wike declared him wanted for allegedly hiring thugs to attack the PDP secretariat in Rivers State.
However, Dagogo, a gubernatorial hopeful, refuted the accusation and accused the governor of trying to prevent him from appearing before the party’s gubernatorial selection panel.
The legislator was eventually arrested by the Rivers State Police Command the following day after appearing before the panel for evaluation and was reportedly prosecuted in court in the state where he was held in a Correctional Facility.
The Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC0) and the Ijaw National Congress (INC) have demanded the immediate release of the legislator.
The two groups gave the governor 48 hours to release him.
However, at a church service on Sunday, Wike criticized the groups for giving him an ultimatum to release Dagogo.
Addressing the congregation at a Sunday service of thanksgiving held at St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Port Harcourt to celebrate the legal victory won in the Nigerian Supreme Court in the oil well dispute between Rivers and the states of Imo, Mr. Wike, who stood at the altar, called the thunder to descend on the members of the groups.
“That brings us to where some people say we are the Ijaw Youth Congress, we are the Ijaw National Congress threatening the government; you’re wasting your time.
“I don’t know why people don’t even know who they’re dealing with, me, me, threatening me, 48 hours,” he said, slapping his chest with his left hand, apparently to express his anger.
“Instead of you coming to the government [asking] what’s the problem, what happened, you start threatening the government, ultimatum. Thunder shoots you and ultimatum,” Wike, dressed in white and standing on the podium, could be heard saying in one video.
In the Channels Television trademarked short video posted on Twittersome parishioners could be heard chanting the Hebrew word, “Amen,” to confirm Mr. Wike’s prayers, while the faces of others were filled with shock and dismay.
Wike comments, disrespectful, desecration of God’s altar – IYC
The IYC, in its reaction, condemned Wike’s outburst, saying it was not only derogatory but inciting.
IYC spokeswoman Ebilade Ekerete in a statement aware on Facebook, he said, such “off guard and inflammatory” comments by Mr. Wike are capable of souring the good relationship between the group and the Ikwere (Wike’s ethnic group) and urged the governor’s relatives to call him to order.
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The group advised Ijaws who are delegates in the PPD presidential primaries not to vote for Wike, stating that such action “will be seen as a betrayal of our heritage.”
“The body laments that even more shocking is the fact that Governor Rivers took his unrestrained verbiage into the sanctified pulpit of a church and defiled the altar of God.
“He also points out that Governor Wike has forgotten that in calling down fire and thunder on the Ijaw nation, their benefactor and revered leader, former President Goodluck Jonathan, is an illustrious son of the Ijaw.
“This “thunder” did not fire the former president when, despite all odds, he chose him as the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party candidate against the wishes of other competent Ijaw hopefuls in the state.
“Now Jonathan as an Ijaw man is also under fire from Governor Wike. To him, everyone who did it, including the people of Rivers State, is in his pocket and can be insulted at will.
“Therefore, we call on our people as a whole to see Governor Wike as an enemy of the Ijaw Nation. We urge Ijaws around the world to speak out against this tyrannical behavior by Wike,” the statement said.