TONYE COLE: Rivers Judiciary Now Tool in Governor Wike’s Hands SPECIAL INTERVIEW The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, in this interview with THISDAY, discusse
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, in this interview with THISDAY, discusses the alleged plots by the Governor Nyesom Wike administration of the state, to stifle the change he is proposing. He also reveals his plans to deliver better governance as well as turn a climate of fear into one of peace and prosperity. Excerpts:We’re in a very interesting campaign season. This is door-to-door everyday matters, regarding what we do at the grassroots.
Apparently, he’s built 10 overhead bridges in his constituency. Across the entire Rivers State, you have rivers that divide communities; such bridges in the communities will make a huge difference. Between Obakri and Tombia, two communities that you can see each other but there’s no bridge . When you build a bridge, there must be a commercial value to it. It must develop and open up the place.
You have to go, sit down with them, hear what they’re feeling and then convince them that this is not just talk; that you’re actually listening to them. That’s why people started talking about the civil service; the entire civil service has not been promoted for years. They’ve not been paid gratuity. All sorts of things happening, including salaries being withheld. The civil service has become comatose. So, we have a government that doesn’t respect the civil service.
The strategy for us was knowing that we could not control nor could we influence how the cases would be assigned and we knew that the government had the leverage in assigning cases to judges that are friendly to them. We decided that our own strategy would be that, for that judge to make a judgment against us, he would have to create something that will put him in a bad light. That was exactly what happened.
Danagogo, the secretary to the state government, wanted to contest. These are prominent Kalabari people, who wanted and had a right to contest. He denied them the right to contest. Farah’s case was even worse. He arrested him, threw him in prison until the process was over. Once that process happened, this particular group now decided that they would not succumb to Wike’s imposition and he decided to crush anyone in his path by revoking their C of Os. This is not governance.
I was going to petition INEC when I saw the list on the RAC PHALGA, Port Harcourt local government. All the hotels are PDP-owned hotels. INEC won’t realise this when they were picking the places. So, we’re petitioning them. You’re picking a critical part of the election process and put in a hotel that belongs to diehard Wike people.
It appears Wike is desperate to railroad him in and then continue to control him when he becomes governor. How does this affect the psyche of an average Rivers person? Is it true Wike could not pay the N30,000 he promised them and that last time, he was only able to pay 700 people out of the 200,000? I’m not going anywhere. I’m not giving them an inch. They think that we’re running. We’re not running and we’re not afraid. They don’t want our voices to be heard. You started this interview by asking when we are starting our campaign. Believe me, we have already started. The jingles are on air. The billboards are there that they’re tearing down and the posters are coming out; the rallies are coming and all of that. The people are ready for the change.The Rivers people are ready.
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