Dr. Adetokunbo Pearse, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and coordinator of Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Support Groups in Lagos State. In this interview with he rips open on the alleged intention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the emergency rule in Rivers State, saying despite the reported bias of the judiciary, the PDP would challenge the suspension of the governor in court. Excerpts: 

 

That was not the first time that Tinubu has behaved in this authoritarian and undemocratic way. That is the history of his involvement in politics because his theory of winning an election is to grab it, run away with it, and that’s how he wins. His party’s national chairman, Ganduje, who is also not clean, who is wanted for economic crimes in Kano State, said that after Edo, where they rigged the election, where they used INEC to take over the results of the election, that they are taking over other states. He said that is the formula they are going to use everywhere else. So they stole the elections. They want to go and steal the election in Osun State. So what is going on and what has come down to Rivers State is that since Tinubu realised that he’s losing the northern alliance that he had, that helped him to at least get votes in 2023, he has to replace that alliance with alliances from the south and the north central, and also the middle belt. So everything he’s doing now is to capture, that’s the word that the chairman used, capture any state that he can like Rivers. So Wike’s mission was to destabilise, either to take over the control of the Assembly in Rivers State, impeach the governor, take over the state and make it an APC state to serve the interests of Bola Tinubu. That is what created the situation we have in Rivers and all other reasons are afterthought. So since they couldn’t get to impeach Fubara, they now went to this second plan, which is to create a situation, give the impression that there’s chaos in the state, and then declare a state of emergency. 

Well, this is what I said, that they orchestrated what appeared to be a chaotic situation in Rivers State, fighting, burning, killing and so on. Till today, we don’t have any photographs of the pipeline that was supposed to have been vandalised. We don’t know whether it happened or not. But let us say it happened, did it not happen several times, many times throughout the period of Obasanjo and throughout the period of Yar’Adua; did they declare a state of emergency? Do you understand me? So this is just a pretext to take over the state. And you see, when you fight the people, at the end of the day, you cannot win. Whatever Wike and Tinubu think they are gaining now is just temporary because at the end of it, before six months, you will see how they will be exposed, because the people are totally against them, Nigerians are against whatever they are gaining. Maybe 10 or 20 percent of Tinubu supporters, Wike supporters will support it, but it is an illegality that cannot stand. Unfortunately, the court will not do the right thing, because they will also bastardise the judiciary system. But, at the end of the day, they are going to have to deal with the people of Rivers State, and it will not stand. By the way, when they start referring to Obasanjo, when Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe, and so on, three states in the north, there are two things I want you to keep in mind then. One, there was mass violence, killings and destruction going on there. Two, it was not a matter of one month, two months, it was prolonged. Three, when Jonathan declared a state of emergency there, he did not remove the governors. One of the governors was this vice president, who also did not win an election. He was governor; they did not remove him and the others because when you remove the governor, you have totally destroyed the whole electoral system, whereby the people’s voice determined that this person is going to be their governor. Jonathan left the structures in place and brought in an emergency system to work with the governors and his Assembly, you understand. So how can this Rear Admiral, this man that they brought now in Rivers, govern the state? You know that the state will not be under any governor; it will just standstill, even Wike cannot control the place but the people there will suffer. 

We are speaking out against it. The Governor’s Forum has stood against it. The National Public Secretary, Ologunagba, has released several comments on it, totally rejecting it. What we are doing is that we are coordinating the national opposition coming from individuals, coming from groups and I can tell you that everything is going well. We are working and we are going to take it to court. We are challenging it legally. What else can we do? We are not going to declare war and start fighting. If they were in our shoes, that is what they would have done. Remember that when they were in opposition, they said that if they didn’t win the election against Jonathan, they would declare a state of emergency that they would take over the government by force. That they will kill people, that they will use violence for violence. PDP will not meet violence with violence, we will make it with democratic opposition, with legality, and that is what we are doing. We are challenging it legally through the court system. No matter what happens, let us go through the court and then let us see what happens. Let’s see them disgrace themselves in court once again and at the end of it, the Chief Justice will make himself redundant and totally unacceptable to the masses. INEC was already discredited, the court system is discredited, the president has discredited himself, the Senate President is discredited already. So what can the opposition do except to keep exposing them? And we are doing it on a regular basis. 

Remember I told you that we know the judiciary is corrupted and highly compromised. We have seen many cases go to the judiciary and their judgment is so perverted, we know that. But what do we do? We cannot take the law into our hands. The thing is that you keep putting them on the spot, letting them disgrace themselves. Let them keep on issuing judgments that are totally contrary to common sense and to the law and at the end of the day, they will be so discredited that whatever is going to happen, they will be swept aside eventually. The voice of the people is the voice of God. You cannot continue like this forever. It is just a matter of time. Don’t forget that in another two years or so, we are going to have elections. Don’t worry about that. Tinubu has already rigged the election. No, we will fight, we will challenge. This is what the opposition can do, and we are doing it. Whether the court is already corrupted or not, we still take it to the court. And, of course, we will take it to the court of public opinion, and we take it to the legal courts. Everybody in the court of public opinion knows that what these people are doing is wrong and illegal. So, at the end of the day, I’m sure that the truth and the right thing will prevail in Nigeria.