In response to an attempted explosion at the state-owned Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has made it clear that he is not in conflict with anyone and is instead focused on protecting the state against those he refers to as predators. Governor Fubara claims that the attempt to detonate the explosive device was a calculated attempt to support calls for a state of emergency in Rivers State, which were intended to undermine the state for nefarious purposes.
During a courtesy visit to Government House in Port Harcourt by a delegation of the Senate Committee on Privatization and Commercialization, headed by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, the governor made these statements. A statement provided to Governor Nelson Chukwudi by the Chief Press Secretary included all of this information.
Governor Fubara disclosed that certain young people had been recruited to demonstrate against the three-year mandatory term extension of former local government chairman. He clarified that the attempt to explode an explosive device at the Hotel Presidential was the result of the demonstrators' and their sponsors' knowledge that some members of the National Assembly were lodging there. During debates in the National Assembly, the intention was to utilize this occurrence to support claims for a state of emergency in the state. The attempt was unsuccessful, though, since the explosive exploded too soon and hurt the person handling it.
Governor Fubara stated, “There was a plan to detonate dynamite at the Hotel Presidential because you people were there. But this God that we serve, it happened that the man who was trying to do it detonated it but just a few seconds after, it blew his hands off.”
According to The PUNCH reports, Fubara said, “I am not fighting anybody. If I am fighting, people will know that I am fighting: My pattern will change. What we are doing is to defend ourselves. We can’t just fold our hands. Only a tree will be standing, and somebody will come and cut it off".