By Kolawole Ojebisi
A top official of the susoended Rivers State Governor has refuted reports making the rounds that a High Court issued an order preventing Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.), from assuming office as the newly appointed Sole Administrator of the state.
The Chief of Staff to the suspended governor, Siminalayi Fubara, Dr Edison Ehie, dismissed the claims as false and malicious.
Ehie noted that the reports were concocted by individuals bent on escalating political tensions in the state.
The Chief of Staff also denied claims that he filed a suit challenging the appointment.
He described the reports as handiwork of “low minds” who could not even spell his name correctly.
Ehie said these in a statement issued on Thursday. He urged the public to disregard the claims, stating that he remains law-abiding and committed to conducting himself with decorum.
The statement read, “My attention has been drawn to an obvious fake news being spread on social media by delusional minds, who are bent on continuing to aggravate the already tensed political atmosphere in the state, to the effect that I secured ‘an order” from the Rivers State High Court ‘preventing the Sole Administrator’ Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), “from resuming duties” in Government House, Port Harcourt.
“The malicious post claimed that the alleged order was granted in a fictitious suit I purportedly filed challenging “the Presidential Pronouncement of State of Emergency in Rivers State” as “unconstitutional”.
“Ordinarily, I would not have reacted to this empty social media rant by low-minds and never-do-wells who thrive on fomenting trouble and causing disaffection among the people of the state, but to save the gullible public from buying into this cheap blackmail and misinformation, and believing same to be true.
“The truth is that even the author is so uneducated and illiterate that he or she cannot correctly spell my name, or the names of others he or she claims to be writing about, or even the suit number and when it was filed or heard.
“It is important to advise the general public and particularly the good people of Rivers State to discountenance this baseless, false and malicious post, as it is intended to create bad blood among the people while painting me as a non-conformist.
“I have since decided to be law-abiding and conduct my affairs peacefully in accordance with the law, holding strong to my faith and God, and has no intention to act in any way that will present me as a disruptor.”
Ehie maintained that the alleged court order and lawsuit were fictitious, emphasising that he had no intention of disrupting governance in the state.
He called on the public to dismiss the report as an attempt to spread misinformation and incite disaffection.
