A former member of the House of Representatives, Dumnamene Dekor, who represented Khana/Gokana constituency of Rivers State, has berated the critics of Governor Nyesom Wike on the demolished mosque in Port Harcourt.
Dekor, a former Rivers Commissioner for Works, Tuesday in Port Harcourt, claimed that no mosque was demolished at Trans-Amadi Industrial Layout in the state capital.
Wike, who always describes Rivers as a Christian state, last week, visited the site and he also claimed that no mosque was demolished, but Imam of the mosque, Alhaji Haroon Muhammed, insisted that the mosque was illegally demolished by officials of the Rivers Ministry of Urban Development and Physical Planning, who he said came with fully-armed riot policemen on August 20, citing non-compliance, despite the existence of Rivers state government’s approved building plan.
Dekor frowned against the unsavory comments of the persons he described as political desperadoes, allegedly with no other aim, but to incite the Muslim community against Rivers governor.
He wondered why the critics would continue to mouth over a matter which predated Wike’s administration, having allegedly been resolved by a subsisting court judgment in suit number PHC/986/2012 between Registered Trustees of Trans Amadi Mosque, Port Harcourt (claimant) versus the Commissioner, Ministry of Urban Development and Physical Planning, Rivers State, the Governor of Rivers State and the Attorney-General of Rivers State (defendants).
The ex-member of the House of Representatives also stated that the anti-Wike propagandists had in all their commentaries affirmed that during Rotimi Amaechi’s administration, the mosque suffered two demolitions.
He said: “To every rational thinker, one wonders why there was no hue and cry against Amaechi. Why all the noise against Wike? It clearly shows that there is more to all it than meets the eye.
“The enemies of Rivers State are fanning the embers of hate against Governor Wike, rooting to burn down the state, just because they no longer have any stake in Rivers, for the simple reason that they have long been rejected by the people.”
Dekor, a one-time Deputy Speaker of the Rivers House of Assembly, also called for calm and peaceful coexistence.