The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the sudden death of the Mayor of Port Harcourt Local Government Area (PHALGA), Hon. Charles Paul Ejekwu, as a rude shock and very devastating. The party in a statement issued today by the State Chairman, Dr. Chief Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, prayed God to grant Hon. Ejekwu’s immediate family, the Rivers State APC Leader and Chairman of Governors’ Forum, Gov. Amaechi, the entire APC family and Rivers State people in general, the fortitude to bear this great loss and grant the departed eternal rest.

“We hope to do our best to live his principles and stand on our common struggle to emancipate and free our people from the hands of greedy and visionless politicians plotting everyday on how to take our State back to the inglorious past before God decided to send to us Gov. Amaechi to secure us and change the politics of our State,” Dr. Ikanya said of Hon. Ejeukwu, who died Wednesday morning in Port Harcourt.

Continuing, Ikanya said: “Regrettably, instead of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) respecting the death of this young man who did his best to contribute his quota towards a new Port Harcourt, they rather preferred to continue with their ugly mission of using thugs to cause havoc in their desperation to destabilise the Amaechi administration. Like crazed vagabonds, PDP thugs attempted to sabotage and disrupt the Meet-the-People Tour of Governor Amaechi by destroying the canopies and chairs arranged at strategic locations in Obio/Akpor, shooting sporadically into the air, breaking bottles on the roads, destructing property and injuring innocent persons on Wednesday, 13th August, 2014 the very day we lost the Mayor of Port Harcourt to death.”

Rivers APC commended Governor Amaechi for postponing his Meet-the-People Tour not because of the madness of the PDP tugs and their wicked sponsors but in the honour of the late Mayor Ejekwu. “By this act, the Governor has once again demonstrated his humane and caring qualities as the people’s leader. As we console him over this great loss, we pray God to continue to guide and inspire him as he submits himself as a tool in the hands of God to emancipate our nation politically. Amaechi should not be deterred by the politics of men who do not know what politics is all about,” the party said.

It called on the security agencies to prevail on PDP to toe the path of peace and discontinue their devilish mission to turn the State into a battlefield. According to Rivers APC, “PDP wants to create unrest, fear and panic in Rivers State. We are calling on the police and other security agencies in the state to prevail on the PDP to stop attacking APC gatherings.

“We also appeal to our brothers in PDP to allow peace to reign in the state. Even before the governor (Rotimi Amaechi) started his visit to the people, the police were properly informed. Despite the presence of the police, these hoodlums still went ahead to cause confusion. The police should confront those that want to turn the state into a battlefield.” APC urged Amaechi not to be intimidated into abandoning his well-intentioned tour designed to be used to interact with the people and get their views on the services rendered to them.

In his own reaction, Chief of Staff to Governor Amaechi, Chief Tony Okocha, a chieftain of APC, described the use of thugs and reintroduction of violence in the politics of Rivers State by PDP as very sad, unfortunate and condemnable. Okocha said: “I think they resort to the politics of thuggery and violence because they have no ideology, vision for any development of Rivers State, exposing themselves as being bereft of ideas on what modern politics is all about. It is unfortunate that Chief Nyesome Wike, the junior Minister of Education, is still living in the past, not knowing that the 2015 elections will be based on ideas and conviction of the people and no longer on the amount of violence one can unleash. The earlier he wakes up from his slumber the better for him and those who are following him sheepishly. Rivers State people can now understand what Wike and PDP stand for – violence. I know our people very well as peace-loving people who will not want the reintroduction of violence into our state. The only way to stop this evil is to collectively vote out PDP and all it stands for in 2015 and I am confident that the good people of Rivers State will do just that.”

•Photo shows late Mayor of Port Harcourt, Hon. Charles Paul Ejekwu.