Rivers Rerun: Women Group Urge FG To Probe Killings

Women Arise for Justice has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to question Rivers State Nyesom Wike over the lives that were lost at the just concluded re-run elections in the state.‎

The group also urged the Federal Government to probe the abduction and the eventual killing of an Army colonel, Samaila Inusa in Kaduna on Tuesday.

The over 1,000 women who stormed the Presidential villa in Abuja during a peaceful protest said all the deaths, abduction ,intimidation and destruction of property were the product of the do-or-die politics that featured during the last Rivers State re-run election.

The National President of the group, Jummai Samuel Pukat who led the protest said the governor should be questioned as the Chief Security Officer of the state.

According to her, “It was Governor Wike who threatened that there are areas that people from the federal level cannot access in the state. It was him who said anyone coming from outsider Rivers state for the re-run must first write their will, which implies that he was confident of how to make sure federal agents do not make it out of Rivers state alive.”

She said the death of those who died in the Rivers State re-run should not be in vain, adding that those who lost their properties must be reassured of government's responsibility to them.

“Our sons, brothers, husband and fathers cannot be continually cut down in their prime with the federal government remaining indifferent simply because their murder took place in Wike‘s Rivers state.

“We cannot wait until more governors join in this killing spree. We dare not contemplate what will happen if Wike’s approach to treating human life becomes the new normal. As mothers we no longer have the ability to sleep at night when our loved ones have to undertake even the most basic assignment in Rivers state,” he said.

Pukat said the deafening silence from the federal government had made Wike to continue to insult and assault our sensibilities with lies meant to trade blames over the killings of others.

She said history would not be kind to them if the memory of the dead is so desecrated with lies “ Our hearts bleed Mr. President. We are worried and confused and we ask if Rivers state is still part of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.