Rivers : Markets may be demolished for disobeying Wike

The Government of Rivers State has issued a warning that some markets in the state might be demolished.

It said that markets in the state that disobey the order of the government to stop trading at the markets due to the COVID-19 pandemic might be demolished.

The warning was issued by the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr Paulinus Nsirim, in a statement in Port Harcourt.

He lamented that traders had continued to flout government’s directives that markets should be shut, due to rising cases of the coronavirus in the state.

Nsirim said that five markets in the state might be shut down permanently for flouting the directives. He did not elaborate.

“The Rivers Government wishes to draw the attention of the general public that Mbiama Market has been closed down.

Any attempt to continue trading activities at Mbiama Market will lead to complete demolition of the market.“

The commissioner mentioned Oginigba Market and two others as markets notorious for disobeying Gov. Nyesom Wike that the markets should be closed. 

“The government warns that anybody who goes to Oginigba Market for any form of business will face the full wrath of the law.

Similarly, Oil Mill Market has been closed and as such all those using Igbo-Etche Road as an alternative market are warned to desist forthwith or risk destruction of their goods.

Government has not approved any goat market at the Eleme/Ahoada stretch of the East-West road in the state.”

Nsirim has asked authorities of Emohua and Ahoada-East Councils to shut down the goat market in the area immediately.

SERAP takes Wike and FG to ECOWAS court

A human rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has sued Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and the Federal Government over the “brutal crackdown, repression and grave violation and abuse of human rights of Rivers State people.”

The suit, marked ECW/CCJ/APP/20/20, was filed last Friday on SERAP’s behalf by its solicitors, Kolawole Oluwadare, Atinuke Adejuyigbe and Opeyemi Owolabi, at the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja.

In the suit, SERAP contended that “Governor Wike is using COVID-19 as a pretext to step up repression and systematic abuses against the people of Rivers State, including mass arbitrary detention, mistreatment, forced evictions and imposition of pervasive controls on daily life.

Governor Wike is using executive orders 1 and 6, 2020 as instruments to violate and abuse the rights to liberty and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention to a fair trial, and to property, contrary to Nigeria’s international human rights obligations, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

This suit is primarily against Governor Wike and Rivers State government for failing to respect, protect and ensure the constitutionally and internationally-guaranteed human rights of the people of his state. The governor has used executive orders 1 and 6 to run roughshod over the human rights of Nigerians.

Ultimately, the Federal Government, being the signatory to ECOWAS treaties and protocols, cannot escape its responsibility to ensure that the human rights guaranteed under human rights treaties to which Nigeria is a state party, are fully and effectively realised throughout Nigeria, including in Rivers State.

Suing the Federal Government alongside Governor Wike is entirely consistent with Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which provides that a state may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty”, SERAP stated.

The rights group, therefore, asked the court for an order of injunction to “restrain and stop Governor Wike from further using, applying and enforcing executive orders 1 and 6 or any other executive order to harass, arbitrarily arrest, detain and demolish property of the people of Rivers State.

It is also seeking, among other reliefs, an order directing “Governor Wike and the other defendants to pay adequate monetary compensation to the victims of human rights violations and abuses, and to provide other forms of reparation, which may take the form of restitution, satisfaction or guarantees of non-repetition, and other forms of reparation that the court may deem fit to grant.” No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.