FORMER Secretary to Rivers State Government, Dr Abiye Sekibo, yesterday told the State�s Truth and Reconciliation Commission sitting in Abuja that there would be no peace in the state until incumbent Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, was ready for peace.
Sekibo also said the efforts of the commission to restore peace to Rivers State would bear no fruit except Amaechi was ready to allow the truth to prevail over perfidy.
Sekibo was the Secretary to Rivers State Government during the tenure of Governor Peter Odili.
Mounting the witness box to deny criminal allegations levelled at him ranging from murder to sponsoring of communal crises in the state, he said some prominent leaders in the state were cultists from their university days to date.
But he mentioned no name.
Sekibo said there was no truth in the allegation that he was commissioned by Dr Odili to kill anyone during his tenure.
He said the allegation that he knew about the death of Dr Marshal Harry and Chief A.K. Dikibo was a wicked one and an attempt to smear him and run him aground politically.
He said he would not have appeared before the commission given the trend of falsehood being fed the commission but for the respect he had for some of its members and to put the record straight by stating his own side of the case.
He first read a 17-page document which he called his response to the alleged wild allegations made against him before he responded to a barrage of questions from different persons and communities under cross-examination yesterday.
His words: �First, let me thank you for moving your sitting from Port Harcourt to Abuja to hear from Sir Peter Odili, former Executive Golden Governor of Rivers State and my humble self. I regret the inconvenience to the Commission and the cost to the people of Rivers State. Let me state that I prefer to give my testimony before the Commission in Port Harcourt .
�My teeming supporters in Rivers State disapprove of my testifying here in Abuja, but I have taken this painful decision in the interest of peace in Rivers State.
�Secondly, permit me to raise a few worrying issues about the work of your Commission. I have strong reservations about the nobility of the intent behind setting up this Commission and consequently its transparency and fairness despite the live broadcast of your hearing.
�In my mind, several issues are raised and it is my hope that the renowned jurist in the Chairman will address them in the course of your work.
Amaechi out to destroy me � Sekibo
�You have been called a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but any fair minded observer who has listened to, and seen all that has been shown on television will wonder if the truth indeed is being told and if so, if it is possible to achieve reconciliation bearing in mind the utterances of the unelected Governor Amaechi and several others who have appeared before this panel.
�To start with, the unelected Governor who established this Commission, how do you expect me to believe in your fairness and neutrality when he had personally told me, right to my face, that he was going to destroy me?
He threatened me in the residence of a prominent and respected elder statesman to whom he had reported me, and who had kindly called us to his residence for a reconciliatory meeting.
�He said I dared go to court to challenge his assumption of office as Governor of Rivers State. He said before the case was over, he would have sent me to jail. He said several other things which I would not like to repeat here, to give him (Amaechi) an opportunity to say them himself in public.
�How can I be sure my Lord, the Chairman, that this Commission is not one of the contraptions he intends to use to destroy me? Mr. Chairman, I believe that I am the main, if not the sole target of this �inquisition�.
�The unelected Amaechi Administration is obsessed with a �Get-Sekibo-at-all-cost� mentality.
�Unelected Governor Chibuike Amaechi is involved in the unethical use of the powers of government.
Since he assumed office by fiat of the Supreme Court without satisfying the requirements of our constitution and electoral law, he has targeted me for destruction for daring to question the constitutionality of his emergence as Governor.
�In fact, by constituting your Commission and paying for live broadcast of your hearings, he has deliberately put me on public trial in the media rather than a law court.
He has tried severally to manipulate sections of the media to convict me and to use the media as an instrument of torture on me, my family and well-wishers all over the world. He has threatened and taken steps to revoke and acquire my landed properties in Port Harcourt.
�The work of this Commission is part of Amaechi�s grand design to pronounce me guilty without complying with the basic requirement for pronouncement of guilt under our laws.
�With the kind of weighty trumped-up criminal allegations concocted against me, I wonder why this unelected Governor would prefer a Commission without the power to convict. The allegations are so weighty that only a full judicial inquiry will get to the root and ensure justice and appropriate sanctions.
�Why is Amaechi running away from this? I had in the past called for a judicial commission of inquiry. The Niger Delta Ijaw Elders Forum, a body with whom I do not usually agree, led by Chief E.K. Clark, also called for a judicial commission of inquiry, at least on that one point we agree!
�Today, there are agents of the Rivers State Government who in the past engaged in questionable conduct and still do so using the full weight and power of the government against all who dare to have a different viewpoint or opinion from theirs. They are actively involved in falsifying evidence, and recruiting witnesses to mislead your Commission.
�Because of this �Get-Sekibo-at-all-cost� mentality, Amaechi has aggregated all anti-Sekibo forces that have seized the opportunity provided by your Commission to settle old political and personal scores.
�A government and a commission of inquiry that is a willing tool for political interests, can go far under our present climate. To quote a certain author whose name I cannot readily remember,
�Often a case that begins in ambition ends in revenge�. What you are seeing is Amaechi�s personal vendetta on me for daring to take actions that can scuttle his consuming personal political ambition � his continuation as Governor of Rivers State.
�However, despite my reservations, and against the advice of concerned friends and well-wishers, I am appearing before you for the following reasons:
�I believe that if Commissions like yours can serve the truth rather than the wishes and convenience of those who set them up, not only will our democracy be deepened, but the law will fulfill its purpose of being a shield against injustice.
�I believe that those who in the last few weeks have listened to cooked up allegations against me, which are so improbable that they defy belief, deserve to hear my side of the story.
�Whilst I have expressed my reservations about the impartiality of the Commission as an entity, I still have very strong respect for the personal integrity of some of you. In the hope that you still possess the conviction to stand for truth, even at great personal risk.
�Above all, I appear before you to state my case, however threatened, in support of the cause of truth because I know and have always believed that truth crushed to the earth will always rise again; that truth is truth no matter how many people are against it and falsehood is falsehood no matter how many people are procured to stand for it.
�My Lord, the Chairman, members of the Commission, let me now turn to the numerous mind-numbing allegations that have been made against me.
On cultism in Okrika
�As an Okrika son, I feel terrible that my native land is today in the news for all the wrong reasons, and most of them self-inflicted. I am shocked that the perpetrators of the darkness that befell Okrika have decided to �lie� and turn the truth upside down, all in a bid to absolve themselves of the evils they committed against our land.
My Lord, to the best of my knowledge, long before the LGA elections in 1999, there had been insecurity in Okrika. There were cases of rape and robberies while the people were helpless. This was so under the then military administration.
�After the APP, under the leadership of Chief Rufus Ada George, fraudulently won the 1999 LGA elections, it encouraged and set-up a vigilante group led by Mr. Ateke Tom, whom at that time I had never met.
�I got reports from PDP members in Okrika that despite the fact that the vigilante group led by Ateke Tom is pro-Rufus Ada George, they were doing a good job and should be encouraged.
�I advised our party members to rather encourage Ateke Tom and his vigilante group to report themselves to the DPO in Okrika and work with the police to ensure safety of lives and property. Not long after this, the APP Council Chairman visited me in my office as Secretary to the State Government and we discussed the security situation.
He confirmed the report I had received about Ateke Tom and his vigilante group. I also repeated my advice that he should ensure that the vigilante group was working under the direction and control of the police in Okrika. All this while, I had never met Ateke Tom.
�Sometime in 1999, there was a communal clash between Okrika and Eleme. I felt very embarrassed that I, an Okrika son, would be Secretary to the State Government and my people would engage in armed conflict with another community.
�I did all in my power to persuade and dissuade my people from responding to any perceived provocation from any other community. Unfortunately, the APP-controlled council and some APP-members led by Chief Rufus Ada George saw this as an opportunity to whip-up �patriotic� sentiments against me.
They spread the story that I valued the position of Secretary to State Government more than my people.
�Some even alleged that I was supporting Eleme against Okrika because of my friendship with Chief Precious Ngelale who was then the Minister of State for Water Resources.
�Dr. Peter Odili, the Executive Governor, did all in his power to stop the skirmishes between Okrika and Eleme, but the hawks on both sides also did all in their power to fuel the crises for political reasons.
�It is instructive that Chief Rufus Ada George never publicly condemned the �war� between Okrika and Eleme, neither did his political party, the APP.
�In particular, I received information that youths from Okrika had been recruited from each War Canoe House, armed, and were being trained somewhere in Okrika by retired soldiers of Okrika extraction.
I was alarmed and immediately reported to the Governor and offered to go to Okrika to speak to the chiefs and elders.
�The Governor, concerned about my security, reluctantly allowed me to go. I arrived at Okrika and was taken to where the training was taking place. There I saw retired Major Napoleon Ogan addressing over 2000 youths.
�Several of the youths had leaves, and raffia palms around their heads and arms, while there was a pile of assorted weapons nearby. Rtd Major Ogan and others with him on seeing me ordered the youths to sit on the floor, and they responded like an army. They all obeyed and I addressed them on the need for peace.
�I was booed and threatened. I put my life at risk for the sake of peace. I wept. I left without succeeding in convincing them that they were treading a dangerous path. I got back to Port Harcourt and reported to the Governor, who asked me to go and report what I had seen to the Brigade Commander.
�Before I left, the Governor called the then Brigade Commander and told him that I was on my way to see him. I went to the Brigade, and reported Major Ogan and what I saw.
I urged the Brigade Commander to take urgent steps to forestall any possibility of attacks on Eleme from Okrika. I believe that my report and the prompt response of the army helped to save the situation.
�I am shocked that Major Napoleon Ogan who trained and armed these youths will appear before this commission and lie under oath. He can escape the punishment he deserves on earth but he cannot escape God�s punishment in hell.
Bush Boys sack Ateke Tom
�After the security agencies with the help of the state government had restored calm between Okrika and Eleme, these armed youths returned to Okrika from the �War front� and became known as the �Bush Boys�.
�I was reliably informed by several persons that there was no love lost between the vigilante group led by Ateke and the �Bush Boys� who were still very heavily armed. I made efforts to get the chiefs to take steps to disarm these youths but the APP- leadership in Okrika had other plans.
�The �Bush Boys� expelled Ateke Tom and his vigilante group from Okrika and forbade them from returning to Okrika.
�From that point the �Bush Boys� took on the colouration of the armed wing of APP led by Chief Rufus Ada George. The security situation in Okrika was deteriorating by the day and the police in Okrika was helpless.
�Some chiefs and elders rightly felt that as the most senior political office holder from Okrika, I was obliged to take steps to arrest the situation. I thanked and also advised them to report the situation to the police.
�I made several efforts to meet with Chief Ada George at any place of his choice in or outside Nigeria to enable us make peace and return calm to our land. Unfortunately, he refused to honor all my requests for a face-to-face meeting.
�At some point, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, the then President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) came to my residence in Port Harcourt with a young man whom he introduced as Ateke Tom. That was my first time of meeting Ateke Tom in person.
�They related the activities of the �Bush Boys� in Okrika and how Ateke Tom and his vigilante group were chased out of Okrika. They asked me for my support. I told them pointedly that I will never support them or any other group to take actions or steps that could lead to the worsening of the situation, but will be willing to host a meeting between the two groups to make peace.
�They left. I made several efforts to reach Mr. Sonny Opuambe who I was told is the leader of the �Bush Boys�. He came to me and I advised him, and harped on the need for peace and that I would like to hold a peace meeting between the �Bush Boys� and the vigilante group led by Ateke.
�Sonny Opuambe promised to get back to me. Unfortunately he did not, and Ateke and Asari also did not come back to me. The next I heard was that there had been a fight between the two groups in Okrika and the �Bush Boys� had been chased out of Okrika.
�From that point onwards, the security situation continued to degenerate. The �Bush Boys� launched several armed attacks in an effort to retake Okrika from Ateke Tom and his group. �On one of the occasions, the police traced the fleeing �Bush Boys� to the Port-Harcourt residence of Chief Rufus Ada George where some of them were arrested. Several others on both sides including Ateke Tom were subsequently declared wanted by the police.
�Mr. Chairman and members, let me emphasize, at no time in or out of political office have I aided, abetted or in anyway supported any faction of youths to unleash mayhem in Okrika or in any other community in Rivers State.
�In fact, I was and I am still disappointed that I was Secretary to the Rivers State Government and Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and my community was and is still embroiled in conflict.
�Though the most recent ones were deliberately masterminded by the unelected Governor Chibuike Amaechi for political reasons. It was embarrassing to me. I am still embarrassed. However, it apparently made the Chief Ada George-led group happy that I was being so embarrassed.
�They planned, encouraged and fueled the mayhem to gain cheap political advantage at the cost of human lives.
�The Federal and state governments at the time made concerted efforts to bring peace to Okrika. Dr. Peter Odili the Executive Governor set up a commission of inquiry, and issued a white paper.
�A Peace Committee headed by our Prof. Emeritus Tekena Tamuno was set up and did extensive work. It will help your Commission if you can get a copy of the white paper and report of the committee.
�Our respected Justice Aribiton Fiberesima also did make several efforts to bring peace to our land. I hosted several meetings between warring factions of the Okrika Divisional Council of chiefs to help them settle their differences and embrace peace.
�In all these cases I did all in my power to encourage and support peace efforts from all quarters. I desire peace not only for Okrika people but for the entire Rivers State , Niger Delta and our nation Nigeria , and am willing to do all that is humanly possible to help bring peace.
That is also one major reason why I am here despite the fact that I have reservations about your impartiality as an entity,� he said.
On Amayanabo crisis
Speaking on Okrika chieftaincy title, he said: �One of the allegations against me is that of meddling in Okrika chieftaincy matters, in particular succession to the Amayanaboship of Okrika.
�The truth is that I have no role traditionally to play in the choice of Amayanabo of Okrika as my Achin War Canoe House does not belong to the Ado Royal House to whom the Supreme Court had long ceded the sole right to produce the Amayanabo.
�In fact, my accusers made several efforts to drag me into the dispute on their side and I refused. They interpreted my refusal as a sign that I was already on the other side. I was not. I am not.
�I will also wish to place on record that all the travails the Amanyanabo of Koniju Town, HRM King Nemi Tamuno-Iyalla Oputibeya is going through, in the hands of the unelected Amaechi Government is part of the �Get-Sekibo-at all cost� project.
�The king has committed no crime. Ateke Tom happens to be his subject. For that reason this unelected Governor decided to incarcerate His Majesty in prison custody without trial for about six month now. His other sin is that he is Dr. Abiye Sekibo�s traditional ruler.�
On Okuruama�Abuloivia dispute, he said : �Neither the government in which I served with Dr. Peter Odili as head, nor myself played any role whatsoever in the so-called destruction of Okuru-Ama.
�Our involvement as a government was purely to help bring peace to the two communities, nothing more. As in the chieftaincy dispute, those who made several efforts to get me to take sides with them and failed, believed I was already siding with their opponents. I was not. I am not.
�However, it is interesting to note that those who wrongly accused me of meddling in the Amayanabo issue are also the same persons who wrongly accused me of destroying Okuru-Ama.�
On Harry, Dikibo�s death
Speaking on his alleged involvement in the death of Marshal Harry and Chief A K Dikibo, he said: �These allegations are mere figments of the imagination of demented minds. I know nothing about the death of these great men.
�In the case of Chief A.K. Dikibo, his death was a personal loss as he was a relation and the head of another of my War Canoe House, the Dikibo War Canoe House.
�Finally, let me restate that all the allegations leveled against me are false. All. Those who came before this Commission to level these allegations are either paid agents of unelected Governor Amaechi or are paid agents of other politicians who also feel threatened by my political profile.
Tasks Amaechi on �genuine peace�
�I want to urge this Commission to advise this unelected Governor to seek genuine peace. What he has tried to do in the past and what he is trying to do with the work of this Commission will not engender peace. If anything, it will worsen the State of anarchy into which he has plunged the state.
�On the issue of cultism, Amaechi should come clean. Under Governor Ada George, he was his Special Assistant on student matters, which position he used extensively in fraternizing with cult members from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology and the University of Port Harcourt.
All alumni of the University of Port Harcourt and the Rivers State University of Science and Technology know their colleagues who where cult members.
�Some of them led student protests to expose these cultists in 1992 during the tenure of Ada George. Some cultists were stripped naked in front of female hostels in these universities.
�In the case of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, these cultists were arrested by the students and handed over to the Chief Security Officer of the university. Amaechi with the active support of Governor Rufus Ada George secured the release and readmission of all these students despite the protest of both students and university authorities.
�Furthermore, it is instructive to note that the Niger Delta Ijaw Elders forum led by Chief E.K Clark in its recent submission to President Umaru Musa Yar� Adua named Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as a chief sponsor and member of cult groups.
�It is the same group that the Governor has used to label me a cult sponsor because I do not agree with their methods in the Niger Delta. It is pertinent to ask when and why did Chief E.K. Clark change his mind about Amaechi�s cult links?
Posers for Amaechi
�Further questions that ought to be asked are:
�Why did Amaechi circumvent the State Assembly in the screening process for appointment of some of his commissioners?
�Why did Amaechi not submit his list of commissioners to security agencies for screening?
�Mr. Chairman, members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as the saying goes �show me your friends and I will tell you who you are�.
The unelected Governor�s choice of personal friends and political appointees is a reflection of who he is! Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
�I have in the past made several public statements and publications stating my position on the issue of cultism and militancy in Rivers State and the Niger Delta. My position has not changed.
�Despite my doubt about your impartiality, for the sake of our people I wish you success against the wishes of those who set you up,� he signed off.