Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2015 election and the Director-General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside has described Governor Nyesom Wike’s strategy of intimidation and blackmail as crude.
Dakuku in a statement said the comments credited to Wike are, “uncultured and unbecoming of a person occupying the high office of governor; this is not only unacceptable to Rivers people, but the good people of Nigeria. He described such acts as irresponsible.”
Peterside who was reacting to Wike’s outburst against the Nigerian police force and the person of the Inspector-General of Police, said that it was unbecoming of Wike “to arrogate to himself the powers to determine and decide which officer should be posted to Rivers State or any other state for that matter.
“It is not in doubt and therefore not debatable as to the fact that it is only the Inspector-General of Police that has the powers, as a matter of administrative and operational procedure, to identify and deploy competent officers to take charge of any state based on intelligence exigencies”.
Peterside emphasized that it was not in doubt that Wike’s fear about which police officer is posted to Rivers State was based on the erroneous belief that it will be business as usual without recognizing the principled position of the current administration.
The APC former governorship candidate advised governor to “toe the line of decency and stop blatant lies and unwholesome blackmail of security officers just to give a dog a bad name to hang it.
“Nyesom Wike must grow up in etiquette, public conduct and utterances. This is definitely not a fitting portrayal of who we are as decent Rivers people. We have a history of decency in our utterances, public conduct and inter-relationships. Rivers State is indeed on a downward spin and only God can salvage our once respectable and peaceful state,” Peterside stated.
He added that Rivers State was a peace-loving state and “Wike’s style, antics and desperation to be in power is gradually eroding the jealously-guarded characteristics of the good people of Rivers State.”
