By Harrison Okpara John
The holy scriptures admonishes us to speak the truth, because it is only the truth that can set us free. This dictum is not a respecter of status or age.
It was therefore a shocker to the crowd of assembled Ekpeye people at Ahoada on 6th December, 2024, when the Rivers State governor, Sir Siminilayi Fubara, dropped a lie of megaton proportions.
Gov. Fubara should have left well enough alone and gone about his job of commissioning his projects, but driven by hate and vendetta against, real and imagined enemies, he crossed the line.
He told an outrageous lie, that those who were arrested and arraigned for their complicity in the killing of the gallant Divisional Police Officer for Ahoada Division, late Bako Amgbashim, were arrested because they were his supporters, especially Chief Cassidy Ikegbidi and not because they had any hand in the killing of the gallant police officer.
Gov. Fubara sought to change the narrative by asserting that the chain of events that led to Bako Angbashims death and the subsequent arrest and prosecution of Chief Cassidy Ikegbidi and others, preceded his ascension into office and the arrest was orchestrated by his enemies against his supporters.
In his effort to malign the Hounorable Minister of the FCT, Chief Ezebinwo Nyesom Wike, and those he refered to as his “enemies”, Gov. Fubara forgot that his assertions and claims could not correlate, with the timeline of events, which were widely reported by the Nigerian media.
Gov. Sim Fubara betrayed his oath as a Knight of the Anglican Church when he claimed that Chief Cassidy Ikegbidi and the Eze Ekpeye Loogbo, HRM Ngozi Onugwo, were arrested and detained by his opponents, over the murder of DPO Bako Amgbashim, because of their support for him. There was a hush in the crowd as the people caught their breath, knowing that Cassidy Ikegbidi, could not be exonerated over the killing of the police officer, given his past sordid records.
In his haste to drag the honourable Minister and his perceived enemies into the fray, Gov. Fubara forgot that facts are sacred and cannot be wished away. To set the records straight, it will be necessary to recreate a timeline of events for the reading public.
1) Sim Fubara was sworn as governor on May 29th, 2023. Going forward he was privy to all security reports concerning the state.
2) DPO Bako Amgbashim was killed on Friday September 8th, 2023. That is four clear months after Sim Fubara became governor.
3) On Saturday 11th September, 2023, Cassidy Ikegbidi was arrested by the security agencies for complicity in the murder of DPO Bako Amgbashim.
According to a news report published on PM NEWS of 17th November, 2023;
“Rivers Governor Siminalayi Fubara had announced the suspension of Eze Cassidy Ikegbidi Eze Igbu Akoh II, for acts of complicity and allegedly ceding control of his territory to the notorious criminal gang who murdered the Divisional Police Officer of Ahoada Police Station. Fubara noted that Gift David and his criminal gang were allowed to establish camps in the locality and are responsible for the resurgence of violent crimes, including kidnapping and terrorism in Ahoada East Local Government Area of the State”.
Announcing the suspension of Chief Cassidy Ikegbidi, as a traditional ruler, Gov. Sim Fubara said;
“His Majesty, Eze Cassidy Ikegbidi Eze Igbu Akoh II, is hereby suspended indefinitely for acts of complicity in ceding control of his territory to the notorious David Gift and his gang to freely operate and carry out their criminal activities” the Governor said.
One wonders if this is the language, used to describe a supporter. Gov. Fubara acted on incontrovertible security reports and conclusive investigation carried out by the Rivers State Police Command and the Department of State Services (DSS)..
4) Cassidy was granted bail on Tuesday, 28th November, 2023, after compromised police officers suppressed evidence on the directive of key agents of the state government.
All these chain of events took place months after Gov. Fubara assumed office. It is unfortunate and irresponsible that in his desperation to shore up his dwindling support base in Ahoada, Gov. Fubara can resort to lies and hobnob with known felons and criminals. The court may have granted Cassidy Ikegbidi and his cohorts bail, but the people know that they were not innocent of the crimes they were charged. Cassidy Ikegbidi has been fingered previously of using Gift Okpara (2 Baba) to eliminate his opponents. Some of his victims include late Barr. Nathan Akatakpo, Dr. Vincent Enwukagbiyor, Dr. Studio Aguiyi, Mrs. Chigbewejom Lawyer, Matthew Ebenezer, Aburi Edi Duckson, Papa Eze, Chief Alugo Joseph, Chukwu Kpasa, Chief Sunday Ayada and Elder James Okorji.
The murder of DPO Amgbashim happened several months after the election. It is therefore strange that the governor is raising the issue of supporters, to justify his truncating of the prosecution of Cassidy Ikegbidi and cohorts.
But this is not the first time, Gov. Fubara will be caught pants down, for unnecessary lies and deception.
It is rather tragic that Gov. SIM FUBARA CONTINUES EXPOSE HIMSELF AS A MASTER OF DOUBLE-SPEAK. He says a different thing in the morning and by noon, he is ready with another story.
For instance at Etche LGA, on Wednesday, 4th December, 2024, while commissioning a road project, Gov. Fubara said;
“Somebody mentioned here, when we came onboard, there is some part of the road connecting Imo State. Because the road had a few meters to an opposition politician, the project was terminated in front of the man’s gate for so many years and he suffered.
“Providing projects should not be being wicked to none supporters.No, no. It should be about service. It doesn’t matter where the person will be.
In essence GOV. SIM FUBARA said that he doesn’t play politics with projects.
Less than 24 Hours later, at Ahoada, he announced that he had cancelled a road project, awarded to a prominent Ekpeye son, because, according to him, the contractor is his enemy and therefore an enemy of the state:
Hear him at Ahoada; “As for the internal roads and other things, you already know the story there. The person the job was given to, wonderful young man but doesn’t have the boldness.
“He can’t look at truth and say what they are doing and what we are doing is bad. So, I feel it will be wrong for me to continue to sponsor somebody who has come openly to declare himself an enemy of the state.
“So that project, I believed, the Ministry of Works has written to them. I am going to cancel it officially and reaward it for the completion”.
Gov. Fubara claimed that work stopped in the project site since December last year. He forgot that the contract was awarded to a company affiliated or nominated by a prominent Ekpeye leader and was ongoing.
One wonders why and how it took Gov. Fubara almost 16 months to realize that the project was not on going. It took him the whole of 16 months to come to the realization that the prominent Ekpeye son and political leader, is not a Janus faced politician, but is a force for the Honourable Minister and a dependable ally. Maybe after waiting for 16 months to see if the Ekpeye political leader was like other politicians, who will mortgage their belief for a mess of porridge, and realizimg that he is not like that, he scurried to Ahoada to display his hatred and contempt for Ekpeye people, in his attempt to whittle down the influence of the afore said political leader.
If the governor was perceptive he would have noticed the sighs, hisses and grumblings that erupted immediately, he announced that he has cancelled the contract.
Watching, the governor at Ahoada, one feels pity for our dear state. Gov. Sim Fubara cut the picture of a man who is woefully out of his depths and has therefore elevated, cant, hubris, summersaults and inconsistency into an art form. He lies unnecessarily.
Again at Etche he said;
“I am happy to say here, I stand to be challenged, this administration has not borrowed to execute project.
“The only money we borrowed was the one we used in the Ring Road project and everybody is aware of it.
“Go and bring any paper, go to Debt Management Office and check if we have asked for anything.
“We don’t need it. What is important is the little we are getting, we are applying it rightly.
Yet figures released recently by the Debt Management Office indicate that Rivers State foreign debts rose from $80.94 million in December 2023, to $203 81 million in June 2024! How did the debt profile of the state jump by a whooping $122.87 million under his watch in just six months?
Still not done with lying, Gov Fubara said at Etche; “I stand to be challenged, Omuma for more than 8 years have not witnessed any project”.
The tragedy in this bare faced lie, was not only that while the lies oozed out of the governors mouth, Sir Celestine Omehia was standing right beside him, but because Gov. Fubara ought to know better.
In 2021, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike – CON, GSSRS as Governor of Rivers State after re-instating Celestine Omehia as a recognised former Governor of Rivers State albeit shortlived for a period of 6 months due to some legal steps taken , paid him his emoluments as an ex-governor which (technically) shouldn’t have happened (anyway), went to Omuma in Rivers state to commission road projects. This was widely reported as at the time.
It was therefore a surprise seeing the same Celestine Omehia standing beside Governor Sim Fubara commissioning an 11 km road in the same Omuma and Gov. Fubara boldly stated that no projects has ever been done in that part of Rivers State for 8 years and Omehia clapped. Nothing defines shamelessness better than this.
Before he utters his next lie, Gov. Sim Fubara should do well to remember the immortal words of Uthman Dan Fodio, ” conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it”.