Save Our Soul From Gov. Wike’s Killer Militia – TCCO
The Tonye Cole Campaign Organisation said it has come to their attention that the federal government with the help of soldiers of 6 Division Nigerian Army today dislodged over a hundred persons Gov. Nyesom Wike recruited and have been giving illegal military training at Nonwa, Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State, adding that the action should have been taken the very first day those individuals were assembled.
A statement circulated to journalists in Port Harcourt, Rivers State by the Chief Chidi Lloyd, Director General, Tonye Cole Campaign Organisation (TCCO) stated that Gov Wike embarked on the illegal recruitment and training of these hapless job-seekers preparatory to deploying them to kill, maim and rig the 2019 elections for him. Gov. Nyesom Wike had proceeded to recruit these persons and some military personnel as instructors despite a subsisting matter in an Abuja high court questioning the exercise.
The statement reads: “Disappointingly, the federal government until now appeared to treat such a sensitive matter bordering on treason under national security with kid gloves.
“We are aware that Gov. Nyesom Wike has already procured illegal arms for the private army he is setting up. Afraid that his illegal arms procurement and distribution may leak, he recently raised a false alarm alleging that the federal government was plotting to plant 800 arms in Rivers State. His false charge was to create an opportunity to blame the federal government should his deal be busted. He will simply claim that the arms were planted by the federal government as he earlier warned.
“It has become worrisome to the APC, law-abiding people and residents of Rivers State that the federal government allowed Gov. Wike to carry on with criminality in Rivers State with such reckless abandon. We ask: is it that the federal government has abandoned the law-abiding people of Rivers State to the vagaries of Wike’s whimsical and capricious mischievousness and wickedness?
“The governor knows that he embarked on an illegality of very serious proportion. If he was recruiting for a legal and noble cause, he should have publicly advertised the process so that the public will take advantage of it. He should have followed one of the key tenets of public procurement by emulating the federal government processes such as the N-Power which is advertised on print, electronic and online media for maximum reach.
“Gov. Wike should have known that the federal government will not sit by while he (Wike) recruited and trained militia to levy war on Nigerians and the Nigerian state. We cannot keep quiet and watch Gov. Wike employ his militant and cultist allies to kill, maim and rig elections for him. Of course, we will resist it even if the federal government did not respond.
“There are quite a number of serious things that will positively impact on the lives of our people which Gov. Wike should apply our commonwealth on instead of grooming a killing machine to turn Rivers State into a killing field as was the case in 2015 and has remained so ever since then.
“Gov. Wike should deploy our money to pay suffering pensioners. These largely senior citizens spent their useful lives serving the State. Today many of them are either living in penury or even dying because they cannot afford a single meal a day or treatment for their ailing health.
“We expect Gov. Wike to promote civil servants and pay them appropriately. He should even follow in the footstep of his predecessor who in one fell swoop employed 13,200 teachers and 400 doctors to fill up a yawning gap in the educational and health sectors respectively. In over 3 years in office, Gov. Wike has refused to promote civil servants while employment is a taboo to him. He fancies spending Rivers money on PDP and close lackeys while our people are left stranded in all the sectors.
“We would like Gov. Wike to realise the fact that Rivers State is bigger than him. We will not allow him to run the State like his fiefdom; Rivers State cannot be his gangster enclave where he alone holds sway, determines who lives and who dies.
“We know that we have unfortunately found ourselves under Wike’s insipid and dubious leadership but we cannot allow him to push his luck too far. Recruitment for whatever purpose should be transparent, reflect a cross section of Rivers society and not done under the table for a few hirelings of the governor.
“The governor seems to have created endless biometric exercises to punish civil servants and retirees just to deny them what is due this group of our people. Instead of using endless biometric exercises to play on the intelligence of workers and retirees, he should deploy our common patrimony to pay workers and retirees with the money to be saved from his dubious recruitment and training of militants and killers.
“We commend the military and particularly the Chief of Army Staff for rising up to the occasion today by nipping in the bud a process that would have spelt doom for our people. The federal government should, for once, stand up for us in Rivers State and put an end to this brazen affront on the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria and lack of respect for constituted authorities by Gov. Nyesom Wike.”
