{"id":3199,"date":"2014-11-21T07:23:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T07:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=3199"},"modified":"2014-11-21T07:23:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T07:23:55","slug":"salvation-rally-amaechis-statement-on-2015-treasonable-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=3199","title":{"rendered":"Salvation Rally: Amaechi\u2019s statement on 2015 treasonable \u2013 Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3200\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3200\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rotimi-Amaechi.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3200\" alt=\"Rotimi Amaechi\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rotimi-Amaechi-300x182.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"182\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rotimi-Amaechi-300x182.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rotimi-Amaechi.jpg 412w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3200\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rotimi Amaechi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">The Presidency, yesterday, took a swipe at Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, saying his Wednesday\u2019s statement during the Salvation Rally in Abuja by the All Progressives Congress, APC, was not only unfortunate, mischievous, but treasonable.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"stcpDiv\">\n<p>Addressing journalists yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who tagged his speech, \u201cAmaechi\u2019s open threat to democracy,\u201d said but for the immunity which governors enjoy while in office, the government would have picked Amaechi and make him face the full wrath of the law.<\/p>\n<p>Okupe, who described Amaechi as a liability to the APC and not an asset, said: \u201cIt is even more evil and certainly anti-democratic for him to threaten \u201ccivil disobedience\u201d and the forming of a parallel government if his party loses the 2015 general elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe unequivocally condemn this stance by Governor Amaechi, which borders on attaining power through threat, intimidation and subversion of popular will.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Mr. Amaechi is so much afraid of his party crashing to defeat in the general elections, what he needs to do is to advise the leadership of his party to either give up in good time or repackage itself in order to appeal to Nigerian voters who must definitely have the final say in the democratic process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also want to sound a note of warning to Mr Amaechi and other desperate players on our political scene that Nigeria has moved away from the dark days of dictatorship and resort to brigandage and that any attempt by any individual or group of individuals to resort to extra legal means of acquiring power, would be dealt with by the laws of the land.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Incitement, treason and gross rascality<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Wednesday, November 19, 2014, the Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, made a few comments about the forthcoming general elections, which bother on incitement, treason and gross rascality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Amaechi, who became Governor of Rivers State in 2007 consequent upon a court judgment, said at a street rally organised by the All Progressives Congress that if the 2015 elections are \u2018rigged\u2019, his party will not seek redress in court but would rather carry out what he called \u2018civil disobedience\u2019 as well as form a \u2018parallel government\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis statement is clearly a further evidence of Governor Amaechi\u2019s penchant for lawlessness and anarchy in his unbridled pursuit for power. It is curious and unthinkable that a man who was himself a beneficiary of the court process would disdain the very platform through which he acquired the opportunity to make his reckless and provocative statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is even more worrisome when one considers the fact that Governor Amaechi\u2019s party, which is relatively new, came on board promising hope to Nigerians. With statements like this, it is clear that Amaechi is more of a liability to his party than asset and has the potential to bring his party to further opprobrium and disrepute.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor someone who aspires to become the vice president of this country, his disdain for law and order is not only unfortunate but also patently dangerous and sends dark signals about the survival of our democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDiscerning Nigerians know that comments like this not only do not augur well for any democracy but also portray Mr. Amaechi as a reckless, power hungry individual who lacks both the democratic temper and respect for constituted authority and institutions. For a party that has made so much noise about its intentions to offer Nigerians a new deal, we wonder how the APC can be comfortable with a loose cannon like Governor Amaechi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear to any discerning mind that Mr. Amaechi\u2019s indecorous outbursts and his obvious disregard and contempt for the rule of law, have defined him as unfit to hold any serious public office in this country let alone the vice presidency of Nigeria to which he aspires.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince Nigerians know for a fact that the Rivers State Governor has not been living in the moon but has been in this country since the commencement of our present democratic experiment, they are definitely at pains to understand why he has failed to acknowledge the successes that have attended our electoral processes since President Jonathan came on board in 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a well-known fact that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has remained faithful to its commitment to electoral transparency in all elections conducted since the electoral reforms of 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike what obtained in the not too distant past, President Jonathan has ensured that the electoral commission remains truly independent of all influences and manipulations and this has won the Nigerian electoral process a lot of accolades from the local and international community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP), which is the President\u2019s political party, had lost elections in several states and electoral constituencies with the President usually being the first to congratulate winners of such contests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the hallmark of President Goodluck Jonathan\u2019s statesmanship and an undisputable commitment to democratic norms and values.<\/p>\n<p>It is therefore preposterous, evil and mischievous for Mr Amaechi to suggest that there were plans by the Federal government to rig any elections in today\u2019s Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: Vanguard<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Presidency, yesterday, took a swipe at Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, saying his Wednesday\u2019s statement during the Salvation Rally in Abuja by the All Progressives Congress, APC, was not only unfortunate, mischievous, but treasonable. Addressing journalists yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who tagged his speech, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Rotimi-Amaechi.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-PB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3201,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199\/revisions\/3201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}