Chairman of Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bro Felix Obuah, has said he is not surprised by the uncaring attitude and statement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) berating the ongoing ‘Fact-finding mission by the House of Representatives Committee on Army on the unjustifiable killing of innocent persons in Ogoni communities on February 22 and 23, 2016.’

Obuah who described it as an admittance by the APC that it actually deployed soldiers to Ogoni land and the entire state during the March 19, 2016 rerun election in order to deliver its candidates, wondered why the party took such a selfish stance against a process aimed at giving justice to the people of Ogoni, who have been made to suffer undue abuses and killed for no just cause, noting: It is quite unfortunate and least expected of a party that ought to place the dignity of human life above political ambition of individuals.

Obuah, who was reacting to Rivers APC statement signed by its chairman, Mr Davies Ikanya, conveying the party’s position on the ‘Fact-finding mission,’ rued: “Rather than facing the real issues and facts already revealed at the public hearing by the Committee in Port Harcourt on Monday, which indicted the Nigerian Army and some APC candidates, including Barry Mpigi and Magnus Abe, on the atrocities committed in Ogoni land, the APC is only making efforts to cover them up and distort the stunning revelations by witnesses and members of victims’ families.”

In the reaction signed by Jerry Needam, special adviser on media to the Rivers State PDP chairman, he asked: “Why is the APC insisting on military occupation of Ogoni during the period? Why is the APC interested in using the army in the rerun elections in Ogoni and the state at large? When did it become wrong for a sitting governor to host or welcome members or representatives of government institutions and National Assembly committees on a fact- finding mission in the state? And why has the APC not considered the lives of innocent Ogoni indigenes and residents wasted in the unwarranted military raid in Ogoni communities important?”

The PDP chieftain noted: “We would like to place on record that neither the governor nor the PDP-led government in the state is involved in any move to blackmail the army out of Ogoni land, as alleged by the APC. We would continue to co-operate with all arms and government institutions at all levels on a genuine mission to achieve justice, peace and security in our state, and the nation.

“We, therefore, wish to state that we owe no apology to Mr Ikanya and the APC, if providing the National Assembly Committee conducive environment and space to carry out its legitimate assignment in the state is considered ‘a means of stampeding the Nigerian Army out of Ogoniland’ before the conclusion of the outstanding re-run elections process in the area.

“Our understanding of the fact-finding mission of the National Assembly Committee on Army was to ensure justice rules over injustice and to reassure the affected people that the government still upholds its constitutional function of protection of lives and properties of the citizenry; the Ogoni not an exception.”

Recalling that what APC now calls ‘troubled parts of Ogoni’ is a creation of its acts of desperation to win elections in the area, Obuah wondered why the APC has still not realised that we are in a democracy, where free and fair elections and respect for human rights ought to triumph. “Therefore, allowing the Army in the streets and at polling stations, rather than in the barracks or at the nation’s territorial areas, would amount to distracting them from concentrating on their legitimate roles, including tackling the insurgency in the North-east.”

The PDP urged the APC to cooperate with the House of Representatives Committee on Army in its fact-finding mission to the state, and stop blackmailing the governor.

•Photo shows bro Obuah.

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