The All Progressive Party, APC, has directed its members at the National Assembly to block legislative proposals from the executive, including the 2014 Budget and confirmation of all nominees to military and civilian positions to public office.
The party took the decision at the end of a national executive council meeting on Thursday in reaction to the political crisis in Rivers State which it continues to blame on President Goodluck Jonathan.
The party also threatened to ask its members in the state to resort to defending themselves by whatever means they can if the police continues to show a lack of capacity to protect them.
In a communiqué released to the Press by the party’s interim national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, the APC said the directive is in view of the culture of lawlessness and impunity which it alleged is being promoted and supported by the Presidency and executed by the state commissioner of police, Joseph Mbu.
“In view of the joint resolutions of the National Assembly on Rivers State, and other constitutional breaches by the Presidency, the APC hereby directs its members in the National Assembly to block all legislative proposals including the 2014 Budget and confirmation of all nominees to military and civilian positions to public office until the rule of law and constitutionalism is restored in Rivers State,” the communique stated.
While commending the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, for his maturity in handling the crisis, the APC observed that the problem was being supported by President Jonathan and orchestrated by Mbu whom it alleged has “become the defacto military Governor of Rivers State and sole administrator of the PDP in the State.”
The party said that if the lawlessness in the state persists, “it will have no alternative than to ask our teeming members all over the country and especially in Rivers State to take whatever steps that are necessary to protect their lives and property.”
It listed some of these acts of impunity to include “the forceful dispersal of 13,201 newly recruited teachers in the Port Harcourt Stadium using tear gas, blockading of the entrance to the Government House in Port Harcourt and forcing of the state governor to use another entrance, preventing an aircraft chartered by the state governor from taking off alleging that he was trying to smuggle out a legislator wanted by the Police.”
Other examples are the disruption of a peaceful rally during which Senator Magnus Abe was allegedly shot and several disruptions of Save Rivers Group rallies.
Those who attended the meeting include the party’s interim national chairman, Bisi Akande; former military head of state, Muhammadu Buhari; former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Ogbonnaya Onu, the governors of Rivers, Lagos, Edo, Nasarawa, Kwara, Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Sokoto, Ekiti, Ogun, the deputy governors of Oyo, Imo, Kano and Zamfara and the leadership of the party in the National Assembly.