On Monday, former chairmen of 21 out of the 23 local government areas in Rivers State staged protests at their respective council headquarters. These former council bosses, who are loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, carried out the demonstrations despite an advisory against protests issued by the state Police Command.<\/p>\n
In Buguma, the headquarters of the Asari-Toru Local Government Area (LGA), former Chairman Onengiyeofori George led a march through the streets, accompanied by his supporters. The group chanted solidarity songs in support of Wike, waving placards with inscriptions such as \u201cSim Fubara Can\u2019t Continue to Act As He Likes\u201d and \u201cThere\u2019s No Vacancy in Asari-Toru Council,\u201d urging the police to maintain their occupation of the council headquarters.<\/p>\n
The protest in Asari-Toru LGA nearly escalated into violence when individuals believed to be operatives of Asari Dokubo\u2019s private military company, known as Amama soldiers, attempted to attack the demonstrators. However, the situation was quickly brought under control by vigilant policemen who restrained the would-be attackers. The protesters subsequently handed a letter of protest to the police.<\/p>\n
In Abonnema, the headquarters of Akuku-Toru LGA, similar protests took place, with demonstrators supporting the continued police closure of council premises. The protestors in both locations expressed their dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs and voiced their support for Wike.<\/p>\n
These protests follow the police takeover of the 23 LGA council secretariats across the oil-rich South-South region last Tuesday. The police intervention was in response to a crisis that erupted over the expiration of the three-year tenure of the former LGA chairmen. The turmoil resulted in three fatalities, prompting the police to secure the council premises to prevent further violence.<\/p>\n
The former chairmen and their supporters are demanding that the current administration respect their tenure and the democratic process, arguing that their removal was unjust. They call for the reinstatement of the duly elected officials and criticize the actions of the current state government, led by Governor Sim Fubara.<\/p>\n
As tensions continue to rise, the Rivers State Police Command has reiterated its commitment to maintaining law and order. In a statement, the police urged all parties to remain peaceful and to seek resolution through dialogue rather than confrontation. The command also emphasized that it would not tolerate any actions that could lead to further violence or disruption of public peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Monday, former chairmen of 21 out of the 23 local government areas in Rivers State staged protests at their respective council headquarters. These former council bosses, who are loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, carried out the demonstrations despite an advisory against protests issued by the state Police Command. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35928"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35936,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35928\/revisions\/35936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}