BREAKING: Fubara reacts to attempted bombing in Rivers

The Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, has claimed that the botched attempt to blow up an explosive device at the five-star Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt was part of a calculated scheme to support the call for a state of emergency.

He called Nyesom Wike’s supporters hatemongers who wanted to overthrow the government to carry out their nefarious schemes and accused them of orchestrating the plot.

Fubara spoke when a delegation of the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, led by its chairman, Senator Orji Uzo Kalu, visited him at the Government House in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

He claimed that once the former local government chairmen’s three-year term expired, they were recruited to stage a demonstration and demand an extension of their term.

According to Fubara, the demonstrators and their backers tried to set off an explosive device close to the Hotel Presidential because they knew that certain members of the National Assembly were staying there. This was done to justify the demand for a state of emergency at the plenary.

He said: “As a matter of fact, let me tell you, I know of everything that is happening. Yesterday (Tuesday), they (protesters) were aware that you are in the state. So, there was an attempt to create a serious problem.

“In fact, there was a plan to detonate dynamite at the Hotel Presidential because you people were there. But this God that we serve, it happened that the man who was trying to do it detonated it but just a few seconds after, it blew his hands off.

“The idea was that as you were hearing the state of emergency, it will be so that by the time they finish when you return to have your sitting tomorrow (Thursday), the debate will be from somebody from this state who called you people to tell you not to come.

“He will now raise the issue of state of emergency, and say after all, distinguished colleagues saw it happen while you were in Rivers State, that you saw what happened.

“But you see, when you are with God, even your own child who is planning evil, will go and tell somebody that, God is with this man because he is clean, this is what my father is planning. That is what is keeping us in this state.”

The governor of Rivers maintained that tenure extension for previous local government chairmen had never been a problem anywhere in the nation.

The governor maintained that he was not fighting anybody but rather defending the state against predators, and protecting supporters of the interest of Rivers against those, who felt they owned the lives of others.

He pointed out that there was no governor in the country, who could take 10 percent of the abuse reeled at him by former local government council chairmen.

Fubara said he took such insults and attacks in his strides without going hard at the purveyors because they planned to distract him.

He said he had remained focused on delivering good governance and democratic dividends to Rivers people.

He said: “Where on earth can tenure of local government chairmen be elongated? You were a former governor, was it tried in your time? Even those of you who are senators here, even in your own states, have anyone tried this before?

“Is it that the constitution that governs Nigeria is different from the one that operates in Rivers State? These are the very pertinent questions we should ask.

“Why should it be that when it comes to the case of Rivers State, the law is always silent? Is it that there is somebody bigger than Nigeria? That is the question I want you to go back to.

“I tell you, we know everything that is happening, and you know it, everybody knows it. We should be bold enough to look at the faces of people and tell them the truth.

“I am not fighting anybody. If I am fighting, people will know that I am fighting: My pattern will change. What we are doing is to defend ourselves. We can’t just fold our hands. Only a tree will be standing and somebody will come and cut it off.

“It doesn’t happen as a human being. If you know that danger is coming, you shift. What we are doing is just to protect ourselves. So, Distinguished Senators, I am not fighting anybody.