Tell The Truth To Restore The Glory of Rivers State

You will have to read the following details in the preceding article to get the full story here.To note again, what I am doing here is to give a report's account of the witness;Dr Akuro Adoki's, which he gave at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that has continued to receive witness account for two months.

My father and two other Chiefs were penned down for assination as they were seen to be the ones championing the course of the now exile faction.

The assasination of Chief Bilogbolo was successful.

My father died of complications from diabetes arising from been confined most of the times to the house and sadness at not being able to see his home.The third [Chief Ngeri Rowland passed on recently and had been buried in 2008].The other faction was better armed [who supplied the sophicated guns and ammunition -I don't know] At this point Chief Alfred Abam was now ‘proclaimed' as Amayanabo of Okrika.Following a court order, he was restrained from parading himself as King.

With the vacuum and mayhem created, the Koniju extract now had the perfect opportunity to hatch their grand plan. They installed their own King [Amayanbo of Koniama]. This is where politics truly comes in. At this point this stool was yet to be recognized and only the Governor of the state had the power of doing so to anyone brought forward.

One of their sons had a Gubernatorial ambition and this would have facilitated their plan.When it failed, the plan was to keep the town in chaotic situation until a favourable situation arose in the person of Dr. Omehia.Recall that this individual quickly congratulated him when he became Governor by default.This plan was further thwarted when Amaechi became Governor following the Supreme Court ruling.So we can now understand the origin of the wrangling between the Governor and Dr. Abiye Sekibo.

Most of the fighting parties were sojourning in the mangrove terrain and some survived from bunkering activities.This was a common knowledge.With the check on bunkering by government, others now resort to kidnapping as a way of surviving and other criminals also taking advantage of the situation.It is true that they had sponsored at the beginning and that made resolution of this crisis difficult.

The Future

My sadness is that young men have been used to, virtually,destroy our beloved State because of unbridled ambition and corruption.If the crisis in the Niger Delta has to be resolved then these boys[men] in the bushes must first be brought out.The Chieftainy crisis must be resolved.This is the truth.Let the court urgently decide[or through the now popular and faster alternative dispute resolution method] who must be King.

The question of Resource Control is another issues.This was not the cause of the present crisis.Must we continue to shed blood in this Stae because of the greed of few individuals?Money has become our watchword.Even the church that is to speak out has gone silent because it has followed the way of the world.

We also need to distance the church from politics as even past Governor Dr.Odili was heavily backed by the church due to the fear of Mr. Isokariari who was a member of another flock.What did this bring to the State than evil for the past eight years of civilian rule.Most of those in the past government in Rivers State and from the two areas mentioned were entrenched in the crisis and may not be part of the solution just yet.God bless Rivers State.

This is my perspective and I know it is true.My fear had been of those in government and others who are also benefiting from the present situation of things.Even some of thiose from Ogoni are reaping the fruits of a course they know was not right.'

Dr.Akuro, then went ahead to proffer solutions to solving the problem.He said'if we want God to heal our land State, we must do the following;

1] Only the truth can bring back the glory of Rivers State.Those in Government must rule with genuine fear of God.

2] Those who used these boys must confess of their deeds so they can be forgiven.Let us forgive all and start on a clean slate.

3] Politics must not be an avenue for amassing wealth as the situation is at present.

4] Create other towns.

5] Give Port Harcourt a face-lift like simply providing pedestrian works on roads, especially , those in Town area as the streets are already well laid out.

6] Use the money accruing to Rivers State for meaningful projects that will bring employment to our youths.I have, so far, not seen the benefit of the Gas Turbine Project.

7] Please, the Chiefs they have been the architects of the present crisis and they need to be true custodians of peace.

8] The Kingship tussle in Okrika must be resolved.Sekibo and others used it to create Koniama with their own Amyanabo.'

Dr Akuro, in a consumate attitude of what he was reading and momentarily, giving further explanation to points that he considered worthy of special attention went on to request that the commission and the government should ‘Handle the issue of resource control carefully.It is another issue that would lead to greedy tussles for behind it is the desire tot control wealth.I do not blame them as a few individual are now controlling and openly flaunting their ill-gootten wealth.

On Port Harcourt, please give the Okrika people and others who are at the waterfronts a breathing space.They have been through a lot.This is the understan ding we desire from our Ikwerre brothers.This is a special appeal to Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.'

On this note, Dr. Akuro came to the end of his witness [testimony] reading and he gave the text to the River State Truth and Reconcilliation Commission.He stood up from his sitting position; in the dock and walked out of the multi-purposes hall of the Alfred Diette Spiff Sporting Complex,Moscow Road,Port Harcourt.