Wike after my life, Nwanyanwu, Zenith Labour Chairman, cries out
Calls for security to be beefed up around him and his family
By Chizitelu Chukwujindum
Barely one week after he excoriated Nyesome Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) for meddling in the internal affairs of Rivers State, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, National Chairman of Zenith Labour Party, has accused the former Rivers State Governor of plotting to assassinate him.
Chief Nwanyanwu made the allegation on Monday during a press conference at the party’s headquarters. Expounding on the allegation, the Zenith Labour Party Chairman said he was at Transcorp Hilton on Friday, July 13 with a friend when an associate of the FCT Minister walked up to him requesting to speak with him.
Relating the incident, Nwanyanwu said:
“I am constrained to bring to the notice of the Nigerian public the unprovoked open threat to my life by a notorious agent of the former Governor of Rivers State and now Minister of Federal Capital Territory FCT Chief Nyesom Wike, one Mr. Moses Emmanuel. This blood thirsty killer brazenly confronted me at the pastry shop, Transcorp Hilton where I was having snacks and coffee with my friend, Alhaji Aliyu. He said he wanted to speak with me. Not having known him before now, I demanded to know what he wanted to speak to me about. He said he would like to speak with me and I offered him a seat to sit down.
“He introduced himself as a brother to Chief Nyeson Wike, and began to threaten my life making reference to a television interview I granted where I expressed my personal views on the avoidable crises in Rivers State, which was being orchestrated and fueled by the followers of the former Governor against the incumbent Governor Chief Simi Fubara. Most well-meaning Nigerians and leaders have at various times since the Rivers crises began expressed their views concerns about the threatening explosion in that critical State of Nigeria.”
The Zenith Labour Party Chairman stated that all his political life he has intervened to the best of his ability on issues likely to destabilize the nation’s fledgling democracy.
“I have never sat on the fence where issues of National Interest are concerned. In that manner I raised my voice as I have always done in other issues that bother on National Unity and Stability. I expressed my concern on Chief Wike’s interference and meddlesomeness in the governance of Rivers State, a state he governed for eight uninterrupted years. I was concerned that if law and order broke down in Rivers State, its impact on the already poor economic situation in the country would further deteriorate and may snowball into a larger, bigger conflagration in a country that is already restive with many unmanageable flashpoints.
“No patriotic political leader will see such impending danger and not stand boldly and forthrightly to be counted among the peacemakers to douse the tension in Rivers State. It is this interview that I granted to express my personal views and suggestions on this burning issue of Rivers State crises that apparently provoked Chief Nyeson Wike to dispatch his hitman to threaten me with elimination if I ventured to speak again on the matter of Rivers State”, Nwanyanwu said.
Continuing, Chief Nwanyanwu, who was once Chairman of the Labour Party, said the said Wike associate became so vociferous in his threat that others heard him including operatives of the Security Agencies in Transcorp Hilton.
“They took him to the basement of the hotel where he was interrogated and the colleague with him who did not disclose his identity, told him to call the Minister and he made frantic calls and spoke to somebody. Shortly after that call, he made another call that someone requested to speak to me and I refused to take the call. Everyone around pleaded to me to speak with the caller and I took the call and it turned out to be Chief Chukwuemeka Woke who was Chief Nyeson Wike’s, Chief of Staff when he was Governor and his close aide who holds appointment in Abuja now. When he identified himself, I asked him if he and his boss sent their hitmen to come and kill me. His response was incoherent as it was not a clear denial or a clear acceptance.
“The security man who intervened asked me what I would want to do at that point, I told them I would like to press charges for threatening my life in the open. I believe the hotel of the standard of Transcorp Hilton must have the footages through their CCTV. What I have stated here for the purpose of verification and I also believe that the DSS open a thorough investigation, which will verify and corroborate the telephone conversation between me and Chief Chukwuemeka Woke.
Chief Nwanyanwu said he was drawing the attention of the President Bola Tinubu to the involvement of Wike’s threat to his life.
“I similarly draw the attention of the Inspector General of the Police, Director General of the DSS and the National Security Adviser and the general public to this ugly situation, which if not nipped in the board will degenerate to a point where no Nigerian will be safe anymore to express his opinion on national issues even as the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees freedom of expression as an inalienable right of every Nigerian citizen. Should anything happen to me and any member of my family, the security agencies need not look far as to who did it.
“Trusting that the President will take this matter seriously, I demand that I am provided with adequate security to protect myself and family, I further demand that Chief Nyeson Wike sign an undertaken that he will be held responsible if anything unwholesome happens to me and my family, henceforth”, Nwanyanwu stated.
