Rivers Killings: Ondo APC Urges Buhari To Declare State Of Emergency

The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ondo State, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State.
The oil-rich state has witnessed a resurgence of killings and abductions in recent weeks with the Peoples Democratic Party-led government and state chapter of the APC trading blames over the development.
The Ondo APC spokesperson, Abayomi Adesanya, who made the call in a statement on Sunday, said a state of emergency was necessary in order to forestall political violence and total breakdown of law and order in the state.
Mr. Adesanya condemned the recent political violence in the state, which has heightened fears that the March 19 state and National Assembly re-run elections in the state would be anything but violence-free.
The statement said: “The rate at which innocent people are being killed and burnt alive in the name of politics is saddening, barbaric and worrisome. Provocative statements credited to Governor Nyesom Wike are worsening the situation. These statements are capable of causing confusion, leading to the breakdown of law and order in the state.
“It is obvious that Governor Wike has lost control of the state. As the chief security officer of the state, his primary duty is to secure lives of the people in the state but he has failed to do this. The crisis in Rivers State could have ended if not for the unwillingness of ‘powerful people’ in government in the state.
“Therefore, to prevent the crisis from escalating and degenerating into further chaos, we passionately call on President Buhari to use the constitutional powers vested in him as the President to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State for peace to return”.