It was an embarrassing and unexpected welcome for the Northern governors who were in Rivers State on a solidarity visit to the embattled Governor of the state, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State, Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State had upon their arrival at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, met the presence of angry looking youths.
Our Correspondent reports that the protesters, mostly members of the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI,) a group formed by the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike were seen armed with machetes, iron bars, sticks and bottles.
They also carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “Amaechi must go”, “Amaechi is a psycho”, “Northern governors leave us alone”, “We don’t want APC in Rivers State”, and “Wole Soyinka is no longer learned”.
However, some youths loyal to Amaechi later stormed the area and engaged the protesters in a free-for-all injuring themselves.
Also, the motorcade of the governors met a barricade of bricks, water bottles and sticks, even as the protesters pelted the cars, smashing one of the SUVs.
They, however, got to the Government House safe, and held a closed-door meeting with Amaechi.
In a chat with Journalists, the Rivers state commissioner for Information confirmed the incident at the airport.
She said the drama at the airport was yet another move by Governor Amaechi’s antagonists to further provoke the governor into retaliation so as to avail a reason to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State.
Semenitari said, “This is very disconcerting. It is a rather curious development in our democracy. We must not throw away the baby with the bath water because we have a democracy that we have all fought so hard for. Actions like what happened today have a way of derailing our democracy.
“I believe that certain persons had hoped there will be retaliation, but Governor Amaechi displayed maturity and calmness. You can imagine if he also had asked for people to be mobilized, the kind of clash we would have seen”.
She added that: “This appears to lay credence to the fact that some people are anxious to have a State of Emergency in Rivers state especially when you go by the utterances credited to certain persons in certain quarters, begging to forment trouble”.

http://dailypost.com.ng/2013/07/16/northern-governors-get-violent-welcome-in-rivers-state/