We’ll seek Tinubu’s intervention in Rivers crisis, Orji Kalu tells Fubara

Orji Kalu, senator representing Abia north, says he will work with his colleagues in the red chamber to seek President Bola Tinubu’s intervention in the political crisis in Rivers state.

Kalu spoke on Wednesday when he led a delegation of the senate committee on privatisation and commercialisation on a visit to Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers.

Rivers is engulfed in a political crisis over a power tussle between Fubara and Nyesom Wike, his successor, who is now the minister of the federal capital territory (FCT).

During the visit, Kalu said Fubara and Wike needed to end their feud to avert anarchy in the state.

“We should not derail democracy; we should support democracy because democracy needs to be supported. If we don’t support democracy, democracy will collapse,” he said.

“So, I would like to plead with you and the former governor that you people should take the interests of your people foremost in your hearts.

“Continue to be holding your people, because if your people demonstrate like other people, we will have a state of anarchy, and it’s not good to have anarchy.

“Few of us here have access to President Bola Tinubu, and we are also going to plead with him seriously to see how we can shorten everything happening here.”

In his remarks, Fubara said he is not to blame for the political crisis in Rivers.

“We should be bold enough to look at the faces of people to tell them the truth,” he said.

“I am not fighting anybody; if I am fighting, people will know, and my pattern will change.

“What we are doing is to defend ourselves. We can’t just fold our hands. It is only a tree that will be standing, only for some to come and chop it off.”

In October 2023, Tinubu intervened in the political feud, facilitating the signing of a peace pact agreement by both parties involved.

However, hostilities have continued between the governor and his predecessor as well as their supporters.