Douglas Blessing
The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in Rivers State and its 2023 governorship candidate, Mr Kwanee Leyii, has condemned the recent attack on the campaign rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at Omuma Local Government Area of the state.
The party chairman in the state, Ben Ogbogbula who spoke in Port Harcourt yesterday, said the incident is another attack on democracy.
He noted that the attack “left vehicles damaged and several other valuable properties destroyed in the sleepy Umunachi community an atrocious resort to Stone Age politics by the perpetrators.”
ZLP chairman reiterated that violence is never within the contemplation of democracy and those who indulge in such that subjects the freedom of society and the citizens of the Republic to terror and fear have no place in our civilization.
Ogbogbula said “Our governorship candidate notes with regret that these attacks are a reminder of the siege on the institutions of democracy and the rule of law by enemies of democracy, peace and development of our dear State while he served as Deputy Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
“He reflects on the heroism of the 7th Assembly during the trying times between 2013 and 2015 and challenged the present leadership of the State Assembly to copy the courage and glittering example of that legislative era by rising to the occasion and bring to an end the orgy of violence that has enveloped the State.
“These continued attacks are obviously calculated to intimidate and overawe the opposition but its faceless perpetrators know they have failed already. Our democracy has evolved and those who still do not understand that Nigerians would not give up their democratic rights to thugs and political bandits after the supreme price paid by the heroes of our democracy in confronting the military, should wake up to the realities. No amount of premeditated attacks such as witnessed in Omuma LGA would cow the people to give up on their rights under the Constitution and the law”, he said.
The party however, sympathized with “the APC and the Tonye Cole/Innocent Barikor governorship team over the losses they may have incurred. We stand by them and challenge those whose activities constitute threats to democracy and the rule of law to stop attacking campaign Rallies in the State”.
He said “The Governor should tone down his fiery, confrontational political outbursts to eliminate the feverish political climate already created. Let Governor Wike’s supporters themselves too absorb the lesson that power is transient by discarding the archaic approach of intimidation of the opposition in a democracy.
“The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Okon Effiong Okon, should redouble efforts to prevent further attacks on political rallies in the State in addition to bringing to book those who have been fingered in the cases reported so far. That is the only panacea to these dastardly attacks and restoration of public confidence in the Police by the ordinary Rivers man and woman”, Ogbogbula added.
