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BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME PORT HARCOURT— Rivers State government has dismissed as untrue, allegations by wife of President Goodluck Jonathan that Governor Chibuike Amaechi imposed a nine months curfew on Okrika area of the state. Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs Ibim Semenitari who spoke in Port Harcourt, also said the state government did not carry out the demolition it had planned around a school in Okrika to create a play ground for children at the model school being built in the area. [caption id="attachment_402195" align="alignnone" width="412"] Chibuike Amaechi[/caption] According to her: “For us in Rivers State, the wife of the President is a Rivers woman. It’s a thing of pride that a Rivers woman is the wife of the President. I have read the statement credited to her. It is important to know she is calling for peace. This shows clearly that some persons were acting without her consent. That is what her statement connotes. "On th...

The nation and the world at large got a shocker on Tuesday, 9th July 2013 when the simmering crisis in the state’s chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Rivers State House of Assembly resulted in a free-for-all in the House chamber. Members of the Assembly were seen attacking one another with dangerous objects which left some of them seriously injured and hospitalised. The faction of five members of the House opposed to Governor Chibuike Amaechi, threw caution to the winds and assembled early that day and announced they had impeached the Speaker, Hon Otelemabala Amachree. In his place, Hon Evans Bipi presented himself as the new Speaker. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 stipulates that for the impeachment of any elected official to be valid, not less than two-thirds of the members of the House must vote in its favour. This clearly did not happen. The most regrettable part of it was that the Police, having been intimated of the possibility of tro...

By Ochereome Nnanna IT was horrible in the corridors of power in Port Harcourt on Tuesday last week. If it were a scripted Nollywood home video, it would have been either age-barred or altogether banned by the Nigerian Video Censors Board. An “honourable” member had a heavy, blunt object in his two hands. He swung it over his head and delivered a hit on the forehead of another “honourable” member. Rather than the victim turning tail and running for dear life as fast as his feet could take him, he was spinning around like a headless chicken. Perhaps, he was too dazed to run. He was repeatedly attacked until he found himself near an exit door. Just before he plunged into it, his assailant released a final hit across back in the waist region. We later heard the blunt object was a camera tripod – a steel object! Someone described that cold-blooded assault as an “attempted murder”. That assailant, whoever he is, must be prosecuted accordingly. The victim could easily have fallen down and lo...