The Rivers State Government condemns as shameless and irresponsible the remarks made by the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, in a television programme on African Independent Television (AIT) in Abuja, and on Rhythm FM in Port Harcourt.
Mr Amaechi accused the state government and the Rivers State Police Command of abetting and supporting criminals, and blamed both for the recent killings in some areas in Rivers State.
Throughout his rambling interviews during which he appeared mostly confused and inebriated, Mr Amaechi provided no shred of evidence to support his bizarre allegations.
A Press Statement today by Dr. Austin Tam George, Commissioner for Information and Communication, Rivers State said Governor Nyesom Wike has given unprecedented financial and logistical support to the police and other security agencies in the state since he assumed office eight months ago.
Within two months in office, Governor Wike released over sixty security-fitted vehicles to the police in the state. He also released over 30 vehicles to the joint security forces.
Investigations by the Rivers State police command have shown again and again, that the killings witnessed in some areas of the state were the result of retributive attacks launched by rival cult gangs battling for supremacy.
And in each case, the Rivers State Police Command working with the State Government, has made arrests, and obtained vital intelligence from gang leaders in custody. There is a prosecutorial process already underway for those implicated in these criminal activities.
For example:
1. Mr. ANTHONY UGOH has been arrested, and is in police custody for the killing of MR FRANK OBI and two others in OMOKU, Rivers State.
2. Mr NDUBUISI TOCHI is in custody for the killing OFINJITE AMACHREE in Buguma
3. Mr. LUKE OKIMEBI is in custody for the killing of Godstime Iforuiyala in Buguma.
This is only a short list out of many other culprits awaiting prosecution for their crimes in the state.
Mr Rotimi Amaechi’s open invitation to the military to invade homes and communities in Rivers State therefore has nothing to do with crime and criminality in the state.
It is a devilish ploy by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to attempt to use the military to rig the forthcoming legislative polls in favour of the party. But the military recognize that their role is to protect democracy, not to undermine it.
We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to call Mr Rotimi Amaechi to order, because he seems desperate to plunge Rivers State into anarchy.
We call on the people of Rivers State to be vigilant and to stoutly resist any attempt by Rotimi Amaechi and the APC to rig the legislative polls on the 19th of March 2016.
Mr Amaechi should have used the opportunity of the live interviews to give account of his disastrous and visionless administration. Anyone remotely interested in the link between politics and psychiatric disorder may have to study the Amaechi administration in Rivers State.
Despite receiving over three trillion Naira in revenue in eight years, Rotimi Amaechi left the most abandoned projects in the history of Rivers State, since 1967.
Amaechi awarded school contracts worth billions of Naira to his cronies without following due process, He elevated the mismanagement of public funds as the directive policy of his government. Amaechi ran a government mainly by fiction, using 3D images to create visual wonder, and to deceive the people.
Today, the abandoned monorail project over which Amaechi spent sixty billion naira stands out in its mammoth ugliness along Azikiwe Road, Port Harcourt. It is a headstone to the corruption and waste that characterized the Amaechi era.
But since he assumed office eight months ago, Governor Nyesom Wike has de-politicised development and reconstructed roads and other projects abandoned by Amaechi. Over 100 kilometres of roads across the state, including roads in Borikiri and Origwe where Rotimi Amaechi once lived, have been completely revamped.
What were the state of the roads in Diobu and Okaki in Borikiri during Amaechi’s tenure? Today, those roads have been totally reconstructed by the Wike government.
The school contracts and other projects with doubtful legality and value are being comprehensively reviewed by the Wike administration.
Under Nyesom Wike, forty thousand small and medium scale entrepreneurs are set to benefit from a two billion Naira Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan guaranteed by the Rivers State Government.
Under the Rotimi Amaechi administration, there is absolutely no record of how four billion Naira agricultural loan given by the CBN was used. No farmers benefited from a loan taken in their name.
In his interview, Mr Amaechi launched into completely unwarranted personal and childish attacks on Justice Mary Odili, President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, Barrister Nyesom Wike, and anyone that caught his fancy.
But Rotimi Amaechi is a victim of contradiction. He castigates respected justices of the Supreme Court, but was a political beneficiary of a Supreme Court judgement. He claims there were no elections in Rivers in 2015, yet there are members of the APC in the Rivers State House of Assembly who won their seats from last year’s elections. How did the APC members get into the House?
It is clear from his political record and public utterances that Rotimi Amaechi is one of the most perverted outcomes of our experiment with democracy.
The wheels of justice may seem to turn slowly, but they will turn, and Rotimi Amaechi will be brought to face justice.
In a recent interview, Former Governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi has dared the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike to come out with all his ‘criminals ‘ in the March 19 National and State Assembly re-run in Rivers State as he has threatened.
He said the All Progressive Congress, APC members would be waiting.
Amaechi made this known while speaking as a Guest on Rhythm 93.7 FM current Affairs Programme “View Point” in Port Harcourt on Saturday.
He accused Governor Wike of abdicating his responsibility of protecting lives and property.
Former Governor Amaechi said he had been inundated with calls of crying and helpless Rivers people who are faced with deaths and intimidation by the Rivers State Government under Wike.
He accused the Rivers Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo, of complicacy while members of APC were being killed and beheaded.
On the military presence in some parts of Rivers State, Amaechi said their presence is as result of the failure of the State Governor and the Police to do what is needful while the state is bleeding.
Amaechi said: “The Military went to Ogoniland to fish out one Solomon Ndigbara but when they got there they were attacked by Ndigbara and his boys. Soldiers are human beings, they have right to retaliate in self defence.”
One caller who gave his name as Kennedy Friday, an Ogoni phoned into the programme and said: “I am an indigene of Rivers state. Please the state is under fire.You don’t know what to say or you get killed. Just yesterday, Friday, somebody was dragged from his House in Nyeche community and was killed. What can your Excellency do to help the state. The state is under fire?”.
Amaechi said that the Rivers State Government under Governor Wike has so intimidated his opponents to the extent that APC members are scared to even come out and campaign or identify themselves as APC members.
The Minister said he has arrived the state to lead APC campaign and with help of the security agencies to forestall violence that gave PDP victory when as Minister of State for Education, Wike was given the powers of controlling the Service commanders in the state by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said the present scenario President Muhammadu Buhari would not allow such killing in the state to continue but Wike as Governor has to show leadership.
“Those who are being killed are all APC members. The level of killings did not happen when I was Governor. You kill people and behead them? Not even Boko Haram was doing that in the North. How can a human being kill a fellow human being and behead him?”
He regretted that under the present administration children in state are compelled to pay school fees and overseas scholarship stopped.
Amaechi lamented that because he came from a very poor background and his parents found it difficult to pay his fees, as Governor he felt the best legacy you can bequeath to your Children is education.
Unfortunately, he said “Wike does not believe in Education for the poor. That is why schools have been abandoned and allowed to be overgrown with weeds.
Amaechi said he returned from Abuja to Rivers State to lead his Party to Victory at Next Saturday’s National and State Assembly re-run elections in Rivers State.
“Let Nyesom Wike come out with his criminals next week Saturday. I have come back. He worked as a Tiger during the General elections in 2015. This time I will work like a Dog during next Saturday Rerun ”
Amaechi also assured his supporters that there was nothing to worry about because Security will be provided for them during the Rerun Next Week.
He vowed that security agencies would not allow violence that happened in 2015 election for which PDP benefitted to recur.
