The Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, Rivers State Chapter, Chief Felix Obuah, has said that Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s opposition to President Goodluck Jonathan fired his zeal to oppose him.
Chief Obuah, who spoke exclusively to Saturday Sun recently in his country home, Omoku, in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, also gave reasons for his support for the formidable socio-political group in the state, Grassroots Development Initiative(GDI).
Governor Amaechi’s group had been accusing the Supervising Minister for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike and Obuah, of using GDI as platform to campaign for 2015, even when the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) has not lifted ban on political campaign.
He also disclosed how he decided to oppose Amaechi, because of his disrespect and opposition to the President.
‘’If this group(GDI) of people have so respected me, and not only that, going from place to place, saying they should support PDP, President Goodluck Jonathan, saying that the man has done well. Check his (Jonathan’s) score card, for instance. Should I now support a man, who is saying bad things about our President? Or, should I not appreciate people who are saying that the man has done well?
“So, because of the good work and the preaching GDI had done, I decided to associate myself with such a group because, theirs is not cult group. They carry out their activities in the open, they speak to the people and they understand them”, he said.
Chief Obuah denied the allegation that he and Wike were using GDI to campaign for the President and others. He said: “Let me assure you that they have not lifted ban on political activities. That’s why you can’t hear anywhere that PDP is going from one LGA to the other, to campaign. Peoples Democratic Party has not flagged off its campaign, I have never gone out to campaign for PDP, the Minister has not done that, too. He is only appreciating a group that has given him honour.”
On the Rivers State House of Assembly , still under lock and key since July 9, 2013, and its legislative functions taken over by the National Assembly, Obuah said he was worried about the development but helpless.
He said: “I’m bothered but I cannot do anything. These are the problems created in the state by Amaechi. He single-handedly made sure that the legislative functions of our House of Assembly are taken over by the National Assembly. If he knows the way he gave away the function of our legislative House, he should go and bring it back, the same way.
He said even though there was problem in Rivers House of Assembly, it did not call for the National Assembly, taking over the functions of the House .
According to him, what the National Assembly would have done was to warn or caution the warring factions and allow them to continue their job.
The Chairman insisted that the Speaker of the State Assembly , HON. Otelemaba Amachree, was ‘impeached’ by majority members of the House, and not only by the five anti-Amaechi law makers, and Evans Bipi ‘elected’. He explained that it was when the governor stormed the House that those, who earlier participated in impeaching the Speaker, started to withdraw their support for the impeachment.
“What happened in the House that day was because, a new Speaker was elected, and the Governor felt new Speaker was not in his good book. That was why he made sure the election didn’t stand. There was no way the number of five lawmakers would have outnumbered the 27 pro-Amaechi lawmakers, that warranted Amaechi to come the House of Assembly. We saw it on the screen, the Speaker was impeached by the majority. It was the governor, his personal aides and ADC, that entered into the hallowed chamber, and after the mayhem they created in the House… he knows what he promised them that suddenly made them to change their minds. There was a successful impeachment by the majority, more than 2/3,’’ he said
Meanwhile, Obuah has joined forces with those who earlier suggested that political leaders in the country should undergo a psychiatric test, before they are put in a position of authority.
He said: “In the choice of candidates, we must be careful, we must look at the medical background or history of people. Some of our leaders have mental problem, are hallucinating. Candidates should go for medical test and their medical reports made public, before we put them in a position of trust.”
“ Most of them have high level mental problem. Madness! By the time you elect them , they don’t listen to anybody. That’s why some of our politicians can go off-track, to even abuse their leaders and fathers, without minding. I think, some of them have lost their senses.”
The reporter contacted the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, through a text message, for her reaction but there was no response.
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