BusinessDay 21 Jan 2018
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C002D5556<br />
26 BD SUNDAY<br />
Focus<br />
Sunday <strong>21</strong> <strong>Jan</strong>uary <strong>2018</strong><br />
Don Wanni’s killing: Who takes credit?<br />
IGNATIUS CHUKWU<br />
Close to midnight on<br />
December 31, 2017, a<br />
popular man of God<br />
with headquarters of<br />
his mega church located<br />
at the Government Reserved<br />
Area (GRA) 2 in Port Harcourt,<br />
the jovial Prophet climbed to the<br />
pulpit in pensive mood, different<br />
from his usual mood on New Year<br />
eves. He looked up and uttered<br />
curses on Don Wanni, (real name;<br />
Johnson Igwedibia) and prophesied<br />
thus; “Unless you repent, I<br />
give you seven days to go down”.<br />
Most persons that usually throng<br />
the cross-over church service<br />
there looked at each other. They<br />
whispered to one another how<br />
Baba (as they call him) is in a bad<br />
mood tonight. They knew that no<br />
man survived Baba’s curses. Don<br />
Wanni, go down?<br />
Few hours later, the airwaves<br />
were constricted by the news that<br />
mass murder had taken place in<br />
Omoku. Omoku again? Worshippers<br />
returning from a midnight<br />
service had been attacked, leading<br />
to massacre. Bodies of children,<br />
women, and men were to surface<br />
around the world. Everybody<br />
shouted, Don Wanni. The dreaded<br />
killer had wiped away the fresh<br />
anointing on the foreheads of the<br />
innocent with his gun. The Holy<br />
Spirit had been challenged and no<br />
man has seen any case where the<br />
Holy Spirit lost a battle.<br />
Few days later, gun duel exploded<br />
in a location in faraway<br />
Enugu and the bodies of Don<br />
Wanni and two of his bodyguards<br />
fell like rags with gaping holes<br />
in their heads. It was less than<br />
seven days. Many of the proud<br />
worshippers love to recount how<br />
Baba sent forth word, the word<br />
became bullets, the bullets went<br />
into guns held by solders of the<br />
6 Division of the Nigerian Army<br />
(Port Harcourt), traveled to Enugu<br />
and wiped off the lives of those<br />
who wiped off the anointing of<br />
the innocent. Holy Spirit, take<br />
the glory, they chorused at a hotel<br />
on Stadium Road where they<br />
gathered to review events of the<br />
fresh year.<br />
About the same time, Rivers<br />
State former governor and<br />
now Minister of Transportation,<br />
Ikwere-born Chibuike Rotimi<br />
Amaechi, paid a hurried visit to<br />
the state and made a triumphant<br />
entry into Omoku. He condoled<br />
the relations of the victims of<br />
Don Wanni’s killing crusade and<br />
vowed that henceforth, the FG<br />
would protect the people of the<br />
state if the state governor, his<br />
bitterest rival though former best<br />
ally and kinsman, Nyesom Wike,<br />
would not protect them. Even up<br />
Wike<br />
till Isiokpo where he was crowned<br />
with revered cap, he praised the<br />
FG and the security agencies for<br />
eventually taking out the dreaded<br />
mass killer.<br />
Soon after, Governor Wike arranged<br />
a trip to Omoku too. These<br />
two former allies seem to know<br />
how each person’s mind works,<br />
and having applied same tricks<br />
in the past together, they seem<br />
to know what to expect from the<br />
other.<br />
Wike paid huge condolences<br />
to the families of the victims and<br />
donated N50million to a girl that<br />
survived the attacks. The FG’s<br />
point man was not reported to<br />
have given any dime there. Instead,<br />
a group called Onelga Advocates<br />
had derided Amaechi for not<br />
doing anything to alleviate the<br />
sufferings of the only surviving<br />
but crippled son of an APC local<br />
leader that had been wiped out<br />
with his family in 2015 by Don<br />
Wanni in the heat of the elections.<br />
What was made loud was that<br />
Amaechi paid an empty visit. The<br />
next moment, Wike paid a juicy<br />
visit. In these days of ‘stomach<br />
infrastructure’, it is obvious which<br />
visit carried immediate weight.<br />
What is significant is that<br />
Amaechi, in and outside Omoku,<br />
blamed Wike for the Omoku disasters.<br />
Wike returned the visit<br />
and returned the accusation. To<br />
him, it is Amaechi that is causing<br />
insecurity in Rivers State. He<br />
accused Amaechi of making the<br />
FG not to support the amnesty he<br />
granted over 30,000 confessed<br />
cultists in the state. Don Wanni is<br />
one of those who obtained Wike’s<br />
amnesty. Don Wanni died massacring<br />
people despite the amnesty<br />
flag on his head. This seems to<br />
be the take off of rhetoric, politicisation<br />
and endless confusion<br />
that will never allow the truth to<br />
germinate in the endless Rivers<br />
political crisis that began in 2012.<br />
Wike, in a statewide broadcast,<br />
claimed credit for the eventual<br />
killing of the killer, just as Amaechi<br />
went round accepting accolades<br />
for the fall of Don Wanni.<br />
Christians think the Holy Spirit<br />
struck Don Wanni. So, who should<br />
take credit for this feat?<br />
Give it to FG, RSG – Emmah<br />
Okah<br />
To Emma Okah, the Rivers State<br />
commissioner of Information and<br />
Communications, a strong Wike’s<br />
supporter, the credit should be<br />
given to both the FG and the Rivers<br />
State Government (RSG).<br />
He said: “The Rivers State Government<br />
sent a clear message on<br />
never to cover up the mass murder<br />
of Christians returning from<br />
midnight service. He announced<br />
a bounty of N200million to anyone<br />
with information. This sent a<br />
clear message for all to act fast. It<br />
worked quickly”.<br />
He said the interesting thing<br />
was that security agencies got<br />
Don Wanni fast. “How did they<br />
do it so fast this time around?<br />
It means they can do if political<br />
shackles are removed from their<br />
Amaechi<br />
hands. The question is, why did<br />
they not do it since?”<br />
Okah urged the security agencies<br />
to do more. “The governor<br />
has made it clear that whatever is<br />
needed to get these things down,<br />
let them tell me.”<br />
He said the churches that<br />
prayed on this matter should also<br />
be given credit, along with the FG<br />
and RSG.<br />
Its FG only – Chris Finebone<br />
To Chris Finebone, publicity<br />
secretary of the opposition All<br />
Progressives Congress (APC) in the<br />
state, the credit belong solely to<br />
the FG. “The Federal Government<br />
obviously should take credit for<br />
the killing of Don Wanni. Firstly,<br />
the DSS (Department of State Security)<br />
and the Army belong to<br />
and take orders from the federal<br />
government. Next, key persons<br />
in the Rivers State Government<br />
are strongly suspected to have patronised<br />
Don Wani over the years.<br />
People should simply not allow<br />
the Rivers State Government to<br />
deceive them”.<br />
Read my lips – Eze Chukwuemeka<br />
Eze<br />
Chukwuemeka Eze, a media<br />
consultant and special adviser to<br />
Davies Ikanya, APC chairman in<br />
the state, said the matter was still<br />
under investigation by the security<br />
agencies. He however wants<br />
people to read his lips and read<br />
between the lines of what some<br />
organisations from Omoku have<br />
so far said in various statements.<br />
The Omoku groups have accused