 Welcome back it's still the breakfast and plus TV african we set for a second or first major conversation this morning looking at democracy under threat in certain parts of the country by governors of our states and we'll start by giving you a background while the river state house was assembly on monday past the advertisement and use of state-owned properties prohibition bill 2022 the house passed the bill shortly after a public hearing was held on the bill with various stakeholders including civil society organizations and the security agencies in river state or from river state in attendance now the public hearing committee had recommended in its report that the bill be passed the bill was sponsored by the leader of the river state house of assembly and member representing obi aqua constituents who won martin amihuli now the bill seeks to prohibit the use of of of residential buildings for non-residential purposes prohibit outdoor advertisements particularly the posting of bills posters and other materials and the use of state-owned institutions or public schools for political campaigns the bill stipulates a fine of three million two hundred thousand naira and four hundred thousand naira for the contravention of various sections of the law now governor yes some weekend of river state had earlier now banned before this had any last month banned the use of premises buildings and sundry structures in residential areas as campaign offices by political parties in river state without the approval of the state government that took effect from november 11 2022 he called it executive order 22 which is signed in pothackert and he said the condition for political campaigns which also prohibits posting of bills posters or related materials in or not authorized places is intended to back the enforcement of the river state outdoor signage and advertisement law now he before this executive order 22 the governor of river said that earlier sign executive order executive order 21 a legal instrument that forces political parties in river state to fulfill certain conditions before embarking on campaign in various parts of the state now according to that executive order 21 signed by governor yes some weekend political parties are prohibited from using public schools for political campaigns without the approval of the state a ministry of education of education it also added that the application for approval must be submitted to the state government at least two weeks before the date of campaign right and he also said applicants will also be made to deposit the sum of five millionaire he called these caution fees five million in case attendees destroy facilities at the school he actually also said the local government chairman were given the power and had the right to stop any political rally campaign rally if government approval is not sought now some days ago the nigeria police force came out through the inspector general police to caution against some governors state governors in nigeria against stopping opposition political parties from holding their electionary campaigns in their state the deputy inspector general police in charge of operations down daura mustafa made this known at the political party summit in abu jahi represented the ig uh usman al calibaba at that event and he said that the police commissioners in the states across nigeria had been directed to ensure that all all political parties were given free space and the freedom to campaign in states they're given the free space and the freedom to campaign in states while saying that the police had received several complaints several complaints of attacks on political parties in states during uh campaigns however saying some governors deserve commendation for demonstrating political tolerance while others deserve condemnation uh for their attitude and we have uh joining us via zoom from river state uh two guests who do justice uh to this topic i'll start the first one and of course i'm talking about uh open a ball in cotaria he is a public affairs analyst uh usual on of the press segment every week right here and comrade sulman leno sulman leno is a spokesman for the river state civil society organizations rift school gentlemen good morning and thank you very much for your time oh good morning all right uh i'll start with you open up on cotaria what are your thoughts on um this new this new uh bill passed by the river state house uh of assembly seems that finally the executive orders have been somewhat given uh illegal backing uh which now makes it low that the parties in riverside cannot break yes uh good morning good morning message good morning my name is john sulman i would have been dave if the river state house of assembly had done anything to the contrary i've always referred to the state house of assembly as ministry of law making not necessary state house of assembly minister of law making attached to the government of governments like uh sulman rightly said before we actually came on air the good Friday might be on the throne for a day but must definitely give way to the drums beats and trumpets of Easter Sunday go through what we have in a river state as we speak avoid sending it's a match of conquest terror and subjugation you see there can never be a cooler charity than that perpetrated under the shield of the law there are electoral acts and you also have the constitution that is a that has felt how how elections can be conducted it the procedures and the paradigm therefore any other law that is inconsistent with your electoral acts there is a hitch there there's a hitch after the at the end of the e carrier a hitch any other law that is inconsistent with the electoral acts and its outer virus the constitution to the extent of that inconsistency is null and void governation which has been a lawyer is seized of this fast and that is why like in every other instance has decided to invoke the powers of the house of assembly to make it a law in river state i said like in every other instance he went to cost to hamstring the opposition from containing he said like the apc and so on that the candidates who are not qualified as in eligible and the supreme cost the cost of the cost sorry the high cost the cost of appeal has referred to the pdp as the middle sum in tanupa because it's an intraparty matter and therefore no other party can question the conduct of the primaries or how their candidates emerged therefore yes some is one weekend who stopped at nothing would resort to various expedients legal and illegal legitimate and illegitimate to frustrate the opposition parties let us take on the advisement the executive at 21 and 22 you will agree with me that the hygiene including the president of the federal public of Nigeria have all come out to say no state governor can scuttle for straights the campaigns of the opposition what does that mean in very clear terms everybody must play by the rule and the rule is expelled by the letter and expelled by the constitution when you say we must give a state to its notice before you go ahead to campaign the governor has no such powers because the letter says this i-neck take this notice for i-neck to sort out whatever burning issues that may arise if for example you want to take primary school and hypothetically i'm not okay that's a problem of my school that was my school my primary school if for example you want to take from my school ask your campaign ground all you need to do is inform i-next changes to the time and it is incumbent on i-neck to smoothen out whatever acts there are if any other party have used that place in that place it's incumbent on that day if you did duty that should be of i-neck to smoothen that out and i-neck will come back to me to say no you can't use that place because it has been booked or you can use it because it is free i must not write to a school principle write to a school headmaster seeking imprimatur for the use of that particular place i tell you why we all know that in reverse states first and foremost let me make it clear that the governor yes i'm going to have voted on various occasions that he's going to frustrate the campaign of the positional parties and most especially frustrate the campaign of a tico hubakar in reverse states not once not twice he didn't mention it but when he was pouring bias of vitro on the hr u and on those he perceived as enemies i'm talking about the lives of homea or sinapara linia and bs ekumanko he said let me see how they will come to reverse state to campaign he went to step forward to say let me also see how the positional parties in reverse state will campaign that was how he commenced the frivolous legal proceedings against the president about all things all right sir all right we have to we have to bring in solomon at this point please uh we've heard oh yeah all you've said yeah because of time yeah because of time you know i'll come back to you oh my god i'm sorry i can see how how worried you are about the situation as a as a reverse indigent um who is also a public affairs commentator it seems it's a really really big serious situation now solomon you you are of civil society right i'll come back to you i'll come back to you i'll come back to you so that we don't end yeah so we don't end without solomon saying things solomon and uh you are of civil society and you're not a politician um a governor wiki is is uh is is seen you know as a very forward thinking governor um you know love nigerians like him he's called mr projects he has a track record of of building lots of projects infrastructure projects to living in river state and um he's earned the admiration of of a lot of people around nigeria in fact his doggedness insisting that you know he must stand you know for the south so yeah so so i want to come to you solomon how do you know the people in river state um the civilians civil society how are they perceiving this new uh but in these executive orders and these laws that are being passed you know regarding voting sorry regarding the campaigning uh political campaign advertising you know and the inciting of campaign offices and residential how our society and then the public generally receiving these well uh thank you kofi for you know giving us this opportunity to actually talk to nigerians about what is happening in river states today unfortunately what is happening in rivers they didn't just start now but then you know uh we were thinking that um as time progresses maybe you know it is as expected of uh human being to make progress in everything that we do that probably you know we move from where we have always been in the in the trenches where we have always been with regards to our democracy since this administration to be you know to get to a better place you know but unfortunately what we have seen and what we continue to see is a decline of democracy a decline of democratic practices you know on daily basis in river state and i also want to use this opportunity to say that nigerians don't really know what is happening in river state because if they do i think that uh both the federal government and the security agencies you know they actually handle the issue of river state differently from what from how they are they are handling it today and i said this because uh like you you said the inspector general of police came out you know a few weeks ago to make a statement that um they would not allow governors of states to prevent opposition parties you know from carrying out their constitutional you know rights to to campaign and reach out to the people of niteria unfortunately for us you know that seemed to be a word of mouth because we have seen time and time again when you know instructions will be given and then they are not when they are not backed by law and you know decisive actions those words become mere words of mouth like that which the inspector general of police had said and the reason i'm saying this is because before they came out to say what they said they knew that there was a problem in fact river state was the flash point that even necessitated uh that's a statement by the inspector general of police but what have they done if they also ensure that these are not words of mouth what have they done to ensure that in river state today opposition parties can actually go about their activities nothing and i tell you something kofi river state has never heard it this bad you know why why why were you know chatting before this program kofi said that uh what we have in riverside is worse than the military dictatorship of sarnia but and that's the truth in river state today we have a governor who goes around to tell the good world how is the project how is good is this and that but the people of river state are dying as i speak to you today in riverside there is no social program that has been carried out by this administration for the last seven years to ensure that the plight and pains of riversiple are reduced as i speak to you today what we have here is this question whereby the governor right wakes up in the morning and then takes any decision he wants and they have a convergence of people you know who have lost the very essence of which they were elected as assembly member who went does whatever he wants and then he carries on as if we are in the military dictatorship that is the situation that we are in and it has even gone worse than this because right now if you see what is happening if i if your is are done the plan to what is happening in riverside it is what i yesterday a day before yesterday even there was an attempted murder on one of the supporters of atiku abu baka in river state here and this thing has been happening systematically you know time and time again since the governor of riverside most election and what we are saying as civil society of benediction is that you must enable to allow the civic space to be free you must ensure to allow the democratic tenets to be to to to be practiced in our state but what we have seen is far from that and i and i and i i i i don't want to miss what when when i say that the governor of riverside has torn riverside into you know a military state a police state and he is now serving us you know the military dictatorship of riverside well uh Solomon let's let's get back to in kataria let's get back to kataria open up on kataria are you still with us but so we already know that it's against the law for state government to prevent any political party from campaigning at this particular period if you want to make reference to the constitution or i mean the electoral act section 95 subsection two of that act 2022 but i'd like to ask is there an impunity you know are there impunity measures paraventure you have state governors contravening now if there are impunity measures what happens to um you know the impunity as well i'm talking about punitive measures right so what also happens to the fact that you know this governor also have impunity so i'm asking how do we messy messy you know understand you shouldn't have any time now so let me know that's all i think i can do from what few questions you might solve yourself like uh uh so what i need to say you know the truth is what we have synonymous or normal with the the federal government has not heard of the certain benefits and an enemy of complete performance you are sad sad let me go into what we talked about the attack the remastered commission of police is called for commands i'll say this on that this call for my because my eyes is in danger they said only there is not even a spot that is when there is only two policemen if a man's life is in danger are you going to send those two policemen to contain the situation only for the city to call up later to say that it was to manage my neighbor how do we do close what are the facts it's highly compromised highly compromised and you're going to expect a man of that caliber or a man of such a despicable character to go ahead and implement the electoral act or implement the provisions of the constitution it's not possible how to say this talking about the punitive measures the governor has infinity and so you cannot be sued while in office of course post office it can be sued on criminal matters but you cannot be sued while in office and that is why it is incumbent on the city acting as the bs of the ig to ensure that the electoral act the political electoral act are confided strictly if the governor gets up in the morning we are a case like that the boost case who was a city never said in 2014 if the governor gets up to say mr city i want you to do this the city will say no sir we cannot because it comes from the electoral act it comes from various the constitution the city will is answerable the government is tied to our security chiefs the city is answerable to the eyes who is answerable to the presidents therefore the city said to the governor what he knows that what the governor is doing is illegal and a little legitimate to say no i will not and that is why you cannot say the answer certainly in the society certainly this very commissioner police i don't know his name it's not you have been compromised i will say this you have been compromised therefore now if you talk of impunity the governor can go ahead with impunity because he has immunity that's a lot of what i say scour this immunity because it is being abused because he has immunity he can go ahead with impunity don't doubt about that but the the the the the the responsibilities on the city and that's why we should focus on the city and the hygiene and the president cannot be absorbed completely from all this the president watches television and talking yeah so please maybe to ask yeah please ask Solomon just a very quick one we have to go yes i know Solomon Solomon yeah yeah so so what you're saying is that you feel the commissioner of police is compromised Solomon and so far we hear that one party political party has been threatened uh that they're going to seal the offices um of this but i wish you had more time yes uh yes so so it's it's it's it's yeah but the thing is it's maybe the government is just trying to sanitize sanitize to now do because they said they've been thinking about doing it for some years but they really hadn't done it so now is when the the government wants to make sure that if if your if your building is approved as a residential building is it is is a is it too late to do the right thing Mr. Solomon and Nicotera that's the question when you are too late to do the right thing now they want to you know before elections okay if your building is meant for commercial purposes you can do that if your building is better residential purposes don't turn it into a political party secretary don't turn it into a hotel don't turn it into a school so so is it too late to do the right thing all right so so let's open up we have to go we have to go we have to go thank you very much we're out of time right yes we're out of time thank you very much um we we need to do a part two this should be a full house topic because there's a lot going on in river state and there's a lot of questions we have to ask you and i'm sure thank you Solomon Lenu spokesman river state civil site organizations open up on Kotaria public affairs and listen to politicians thank you very much for your time um you're saying they have a hiddler hiddler in river state thank you we'll talk some more i hope that um they will not be an executive order on you both of you have time now we'll take a break whenever we return we'll talk some more merci we have next sports when we return