Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara has vowed to implement the white paper that would emerge from the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by his administration to probe the wanton destruction of properties, arson and attack on local government secretariats in the State among others.
Fubara disclosed this yesterday in Government House, Port Harcourt, when members of the panel led by the Chairperson, His Lordship, Justice Ibiwengi Roseline Minakiri, submitted the panel’s report.
In his words: “I want to thank this Commission for taking time to do this detailed job. We are going to take it to the next stage, he assured.
“This report will be presented to the executive council and we will surely come out with a white paper which I can assure you that we are going to follow to the end. Nobody is above the law including myself, provided that what we are doing is within the confines of the law, we will do it with the help of everyone”.
He thanked God for giving members of the commission the will to complete their assignments, saying that he was aware that there were attempts by enemies of the State to scuttle the process.
He noted that attempts were made in court to stop the commission, adding that there were also indications that the members of the Commission were threatened many times by detractors, who wanted them to abandon the assignment.
“But the question is, why would anyone be threatening the commission except you know that you have done something wrong and perhaps if the commission does its job very well you may be having a problem. Without that I don’t think you need to worry about it”.
The governor emphasized that some persons in the state had mastered the act of throwing bombs on public facilities including the courts and recalled that in 2014 they did the same to judicial institutions.
“They had to take it further to LGA councils. I wonder why somebody will spend so much money to build a legacy project that your administration will be remembered for, then the same person or group of persons will now go behind to destroy such legacies”.
The governor said his team would not be part of any system encouraging destruction in the state noting that it is the reason his government set up the judicial commission of inquiry.
“We are not going to be part of any system that will encourage any destruction in this state and for that reason we have to inaugurate this commission so that this commission will look into the remote causes of this problem.
“And I believe the recommendations of this commission with the help of God and the support of everyone, we will make sure we implement the recommendations.
“I will like everyone to hear me when I say this, I make bold to say it, I have never been and I will never be party to anything that will bring shame, disgrace and destruction to our dear state.
“It is our state, if it’s well with us it’s well with everybody. As a matter of fact why should I encourage destruction when I know that when you finish spoiling you still need money to rebuild. I am an accountant, I know the importance of how you can manage money, rather than spoil, you use that money to do a new thing for the state”.
The governor vowed to put an end to the unreasonable thinking that political differences should lead to violence in the state as according to him, “Politics is a business of interest, there’s no permanent friend or enemy. Some persons who were not even in our support, today they are here following us because the interest is the most important thing likewise tomorrow if the interest changes they will also go their different ways so why burn down the house?” He queried.
In her presentation, Chairman of the
seven-member Judicial Commission of Inquiry, His Lordship, Justice Ibiwengi Roseline Minakiri, said they had put their findings into four volumes, including the recommendations.
Justice Minakiri explained: “We have here four volumes of the report. We have the memoranda, which is the memoranda we got after we made our publications.
“We also have the exhibits that came with the memoranda. We have the proceedings and the records. At the end of the day, we came up with the main report.”
Justice Minakiri advised that the recommendations of the report should be studied and implemented so that people can be deterred from such callous act and the sought-after peace secured for the State.
