Amotekun: Wike, Dickson quarrel disturbing unity of South South governors

Governors of the six South-South states are, at the moment, disordered and ineffective to hold a meeting to take a joint decision on the setting up of a regional security outfit like the South West Security Network, ‘Amotekun’ launched, last week, by South-West Governors to enhance security in the region, Vanguard investigation has revealed.

The investigation revealed the rift between Governor Wike of Rivers State and Governor Dickson of Bayelsa state is one of the main contributing factor to the inability of the south-south governors to converge.

Governor Wike, a powerful governor in the region is not prepared to attend any meeting with Governor Dickson, who is handing over next month (February) to the newly elected All Progressives Congress, APC, Governor-elect in his state, Mr David Lyon.

There was also indication that Lyon may not be at ease with any binding undertaking on behalf of Bayelsa state by Governor Dickson at this critical time and would want to consult the Edo state governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, also of the APC before taking any decision.

Governor Nyesom Wike and the state Information Commissioner, Paulinus Nsiri, were not forthcoming on reactions to the Federal Government’s disapproval of Amotekun, when contacted, against the backdrop of the same fate that befell similar Neighboring Watch set up by the Wike administration.

Though the governor has always held strongly to not giving up on operationalizing the Neighborhood Watch, established by a Rivers state law in the face of federal government disapprobation, he made no mention of it in the N23Billion he appropriated for security in the 2020 Rivers budget.