The Federal Government said yesterday it could not probe the assassination allegation made by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike because the governor enjoys immunity.
Minister of Information Lai Mohammed told reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja that for the fact that Wike is enjoying immunity, he would have been invited over his allegation that the Federal government was planning to assassinate him.
Mohammed said: โAs for the question about the allegation by the governor of Rivers that he has information that he will be assassinated by the federal government in a crowd.,โI think the beauty of being a governor is that you enjoy immunity from prosecution and arrest. Because I remember a couple of years ago when I made a similar allegation, I was invited to the Force Headquarters.โ
But Wike in a statement accused the federal goernmenty of caring less about human lives especially when people are being killed daily across the country.
Wike said because the Federal Government had relegated the sanctity of human lives, that is why they give conflicting reasons for the security challenges that have led to wanton killings in different parts of the country.
โThey donโt care about the issue of the protection of lives and property. That is why people are killed in their numbers everyday.
โBut I will not be slaughtered easily. They will not succeed in their plotโ, Governor Wike said.
The governor expressed shock that rather than say that this weighty intelligence report will be duly investigated , the Minister of Information is struggling to trivialize the matter.
He said there are laid down constitutional processes of handling weighty issues of this nature, pointing out that it is unfortunate that the Federal Government had refused to follow the constitutional path.