Despite being fingered as the mastermind of last week`s chaos that engulfed the River State House of Assembly, First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, Monday, appealed to the feuding parties to apply restraint quickly and find ways to resolve all political differences.
In a statement issued by her Special Assistant on Media, Ayo Osinlu, the First Lady, said,
This office wishes to call on all feuding parties in Rivers State to spare a thought for the social, political and economic costs of the crisis, and consider an urgent way to resolve all political differences.”
“It is our position that the greater consequences of the impasse is, as usual, reserved for the poor, the weak and the vulnerable, especially women and children, who are usually innocent bystanders in all these.”
“This derives naturally from the saying that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”
She went on: “On a larger scale, we subscribe to the fact that conflicts and violence are the most lethal threats to peace, which itself is the irreducible minimum condition for development.”
“The situation must therefore not be allowed to degenerate to a level that can be hijacked by miscreants and hoodlums, thus exposing everyone to insecurity from which there may be no easy escape.”
“We therefore call on elders of the state to position themselves appropriately in the circumstances, and continue to seek the highest good of Rivers state and its people, by stone-walling the activities of the few who would rather fan little embers into a consuming inferno.”
“Recent experience whereby certain otherwise respected elders of the country, both from within and outside Rivers State, were canvassing views that seemed to intensify the heat in Rivers State, is certainly unfortunate.”
“We also recall recent pictures of some youths on the streets of Port Harcourt, obviously in an angry mood, a worrisome suggestion that the crisis is already threatening to spill to the streets, a dimension we cannot afford to allow to escalate for obvious reasons.”
“We must stress that the people of the state desire and look forward to an end to the hostilities, to pave way for higher economic activities and nobler political engagements that will guarantee an enhancement of their welfare.”
“It is therefore incumbent on all people of goodwill to seek to restore peace, brotherliness and love in Rivers State, for the state to press forward in the direction of growth and progress.”
However, some members of the River State House of Assembly, who did not want their name in print, said, Dame Patience Jonathan is not sincere.
In their words, Evans Bipi, the arrow head of last week’s chaos, was allegedly acting a script handed to him by the first Lady.Patience Jonathan was the mother of the day at his wedding and on the day of the mayhem, Evans was heard telling his colleagues, he was carrying out Mommy`s orders.“Why must he be insulting my mother, my Jesus Christ on earth?” asked irked Bipi. “I have no mother. Dame Patience Jonathan is my mother,” Bipi exclaimed on video during the mayhem.
