Minister of Transportation and former Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has declared that he remains the single-item agenda of the administration of Governor Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike solely focussed on denigrating him.
Describing the allegation by Wike that he stole $150m from the state coffers within 80 days to fund the All Progressives Congress (APC), the former governor wondered why his successor would lay such false allegation against him.
Amaechi, in a statement in Port Harcourt Monday by his media office, also wondered why Wike has refused to use any constitutionally available legal process to prove his various allegations against his predecessor’s administration.
The statement reads in part: “Sadly, on Sunday, February 7, 2016, Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State in furtherance of his administration’s one-point agenda, yet again, continued his grossly irresponsible, repugnant and contemptuous, albeit, feckless mission of denigrating and disparaging the person and office of the immediate-past governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who is now the Minister of Transportation.
“The ‘story-story’ this time is about another phantom $150m that Amaechi purportedly stole from Rivers State government coffers and siphoned to his party, the All Progressives Congress(APC) within eighteen days, from December 1 to 18 of 2014. Sadly again, Wike picked a church, a sacred temple of God, to tell his new imaginary tale, another bogus, fallacious concoction.”
The statement noted that the “scurrilous fabrication” by Governor Wike was in sync with the one-point agenda of the Wike administration, which is to throw as much mud as possible at former governor Amaechi, hoping that some may at least stick.
It noted that all sorts of spurious stories about alleged corruption and stealing of state funds against the Amaechi administration have been bandied about in the media with no attempt to substantiate the claims.
“Even, when Amaechi challenged the Wike administration and its agents to use any constitutionally available legal process or procedure to prove their jaundiced, deceitful allegations against him and his administration, they have rather elected to do their own corruption probe, trial and conviction in the media; and now, even inside our solemn places of worship (churches). How callous! Why would a government be so determined to desecrate and destroy every institution, all in the name of playing politics?”
It added: “It continues to baffle us, like most right-thinking Nigerians that Governor Wike will stand in a church – a solemn place of worship – and carelessly, brusquely tell such a profound lie. He condescendingly descended to falsely and indecorously shout corruption against Amaechi, without providing a single shred of evidence to back his claims. How pathetic!
“Pray, Governor Wike, who collected the $150m on behalf of APC? From which State Government account(s)?’’