Don’t Be Used As A Tool To Destroy EBF, Governor Wike Charges EBF

* Stop Nigeria’s downward slide, Wike tells lawyers, journalists The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has appealed to lawyers and media professionals to work towards stopping the downward slide of the country by enthroning a pro-people leadership in 2019. Wike, who made this appeal during the Eastern Bar Forum Quarterly Meeting in Port Harcourt on Saturday, said the bar and the media should be blamed for promoting propaganda that led to the emergence of the current government at the centre. “The NBA and the press contributed to the propaganda that threw Nigeria into this political and economic quagmire. This is my first time of experiencing someone digging his own grave. It is time for all those who dug this grave to go and close the grave they have dug,” the governor said. He stressed that it was important for the bar and other stakeholders to immediate rise and correct the anomaly in 2019. The governor urged the NBA to speak against the downward slide of the country, adding that it would not be in the interest of Nigerians to continue under the current situation. Wike charged members of the Forum to speak in one voice. This he made known in the Eastern Bar forum’s quarterly meeting. According to the governor who doubles as a legal practitioner, discussion taken in the forum may not be acceptable by all members, but speaking with one voice is the only way out. To him, even if there should be a quarrel which is inevitable, it should end at the forum’s level. He therefore charged members not to allow themselves to be used as tools to destroy the branch. He called on Nigerians not to be swayed by the plot of the All Progressives Congress to use restructuring as a tool of political deception, saying the President stated clearly that he did not believe in it. Wike urges Nigerians to be vigilant, adding that security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission were the tools for the subversion of the people’s will. “Most of the people backing the President for a second term are doing so because that is the only way they can get a second term,” he said. The governor reiterated his declaration that the government and people of Rivers State had no land for the location of cattle colony in the state. In his address, Governor of Eastern Bar Forum, Sir Arthur Chukwu, said legal practitioners must work for the weak and voiceless in the society. He described Wike as a human rights-friendly governor promoting the rule of law and working to develop his state.]]>