Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has vowed to arrest and prosecute owners of filling stations selling petroleum products supplied by artisanal refiners.
Chief of Staff (CoS) to the Governor, Chief Emeka Woke, said no amount of blackmail would deter the state government from prosecuting the lawmaker representing Port Harcourt Federal Constituency II, Mr. Chinyere Igwe, whose filling station had been sealed over illegal oil bunkering activities.
Media Unit of the CoS office stated, yesterday, that he spoke at the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), Permanent Voter Card (PVC) sensitisation and mobilisation rally at Mogho in Gokana at the weekend.
The statement reads: “Anybody who allows his business premises to be used for illegal oil bunkering, that premises will be shut down. Whoever allows his hotel to harbour criminals bent of destabilising the state, we will deal with them according to the law.”
Woke, who urged Igwe to submit himself to security agencies for interrogation, however, warned him to desist from misleading the unsuspecting public with spurious claims that he was being politically victimised.
He took a swipe at the lawmaker for making derogatory remarks about the governor.
According to him, but for the governor’s benevolence, the lawmaker would have gone into political extinction. His words: “I listened to Igwe yesterday talking about ingratitude; a man, who had been retired politically. This is the man who spent only one term in the House of Representatives and came back home. The immediate past governor, Rotimi Amaechi, chased him out of Port Harcourt and he ran to Abuja. He even contested on the platform of ACN then, and lost woefully.
“When we had mobilised GDI and had strengthened the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), we brought him back and those he said he is speaking for now. None of them were foundation members of GDI. Wike gave him platform, first as a commissioner and then to the National Assembly, though he didn’t win the primary. Today, he is talking about ingratitude.”
The CoS also urged media organisations in the State to be objective and abide by the ethics of journalism and resist being used as purveyors of spurious fake news.
The Chief of Staff lauded the people of Gokana who turned out en-masse for the GDI rally, for their unwavering commitment and support to the Wike’s administration.
He described the governor’s decision to dualise the over 31-kilometre Saakpenwa–Kono Road as a sheer evidence of his love and appreciation to the Ogoni people for their support over the years.
The PDP governorship candidate in Rivers State, Siminalaye Fubara, urged the people to jealously safeguard their PVC ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Similarly, the party’s chairman, Desmond Akawor, commended GDI for sensitising the people of the state on the importance of the PVC.
