TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The member representing Khana/Gokana Federal Constituency, Dumnamene Dekor, has stated that no mosque existed on the alleged demolished worship centre in Rainbow Town, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as insinuated by critics of Governor Nyesom Wike.
The federal lawmaker and former Commissioner for Works in State, Dekor, said at no time was a mosque built on the said land, adding also that no records from his predecessors showed that a mosque existed on the site all through his period of service as Commissioner of Works.
He frowned against the unsavoury comments of those he described as “political desperadoes,” with no other aim than to incite the Muslim community against the state governor.
The lawmaker, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, wondered why critics would continue to mount over a matter, which predated Governor Wike, having been resolved by a subsisting court judgement in Suit Number PHC/986/2012 between Registered Trustees of Trans Amadi Mosque, Port Harcourt (claimant) and the Commissioner, Ministry of Urban Development and Physical Planning, Rivers State, the Governor of Rivers State and the Attorney General of Rivers State (defendants).
Dekor affirmed that the court in that judgement ruled that the claimants had no approval to build on the disputed land.
He recalled that anti-Wike propagandists had in all their commentaries, affirmed that under former Governor Chibuike Amaechi, the said ‘mosque’ had suffered two demolitions.
“To every rational thinker, one again wonders why there was no hue and cry against Amaechi. Why all this noise against Wike? It clearly shows that there is more to all this than meets the eye,” he said.
The lawmaker, who was also one-time deputy speaker in the state House of Assembly, noted that the mosque demolition saga that was playing out in the state, could be likened to the Biblical story of two women, who appeared before Solomon contending for the ownership of a baby.
“These enemies of the 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 State, for the simple reason that they have long been rejected by the people,” he stated.