*IGP deploys AIG, 3CPs, 6,000 policemen to Rivers
Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi has blasted Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State at the weekend with the latter firing back in mutual accusations of of corruption and mismanagement of the resources of the state.
Amaechi accused his successor, Wike, of squandering about N50 billion in nine months since he assumed office on May 29 in addition to shocking sums of money he wasted while he was Federal minister of state for Education.
Contrarily, Governor Wike said the minister frittered away about N3 trillion as governor of the state, stressing that Amaechi’s administration had the highest record of abandoned projects in the history of governance in the state since its creation in 1967.
Amaechi, who spoke on a radio programme in Port Harcourt, said that the state will be flooded with security men on March 19, the day of the re-run election to guard against rigging.
He challenged Governor Wike to show Rivers people what he did with the money borrowed and federal allocation that had accrued to the state since he came on board.
The former governor recalled several projects he executed in the state and announced he has relocated to the state to mobilize members of his All Progressives Congress (APC) to win the rerun elections.
Governor Wike, who spoke through his Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr Austin Tam-George after the radio programme, cited the abandoned monorail project started by the former governor, adding that Amaechi awarded several contracts running into billions of naira to cronies without following due process.
The commissioner, who briefed newsmen in his office in Port Harcourt, also spoke about some of the successes so far recorded by Governor Wike since he assumed office, including rehabilitation of over 100 kilometres of roads.
His words: “Mr Amaechi should have used the opportunity of the live interviews to give account of his disastrous and visionless administration. Despite receiving over N3 trillion in revenue in eight years, 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. Today, the abandoned monorail project for which Amaechi spent N60 billion stands out in its mammoth ugliness on Azikiwe Road, Port Harcourt. It is a headstone to the corruption and waste that characterized his era.
“But since he assumed office eight months ago, Governor 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 Amaechi once lived, had been 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 Wike, 40,000 small and medium scale entrepreneurs are set to benefit from a N2 billoin Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan guaranteed by the Rivers State Government. Under the Amaechi administration, there is no record of how N4 billion agricultural loan granted by CBN was used. No farmer benefited from a loan taken in their name.”
…IG deploys AIG, three CPs to Rivers, as police arrest man over Buguma killing
In a bid to ensure free and fair re-run elections in Rivers State and checkmate allegations of planned electoral violence, Inspector-General of Police Solomon Arase has directed the Assistant Inspector-General in charge Zone 6, Baba Bolanta, to relocate from Calabar, Cross River State, to Port Harcourt.
He has also redeployed three Commissioners of Police to Rivers State to further boost security of lives and property and ensure hitch-free elections.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Police Command has arrested one Luke Okumebi in connection with the killing last week of a youth, Godstime Ifuroiyala, in Buguma, Asari Toru Local Government Area of the state, by suspected cultists.
The deceased, who was killed in a reprisal attack by alleged loyalists of the late Ofinjite Amachree, who was killed in the community on Tuesday, was allegedly set ablaze and his corpse dumped in the river.
Community sources said after killing the late Ifuroiyala, his assailants burnt his remains the same way killers of late Amachree, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the area was burnt on Tuesday.
“It was hit and run attack so there was nothing the police could have done. They just got hold of their target, finished him and disappeared with the corpse before the police came,” the sources said.
Similarly, a statement by Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olabisi Kolawole, in Abuja, on the deployment of some officers for the re-run poll, said: “In furtherance of strategies designed to prevent electoral violence and thus ensure a smooth and orderly conduct of the Rivers State re-run elections slated for March 19, 2016, IG Arase has directed the AIG in charge of Zone 6 Calabar, AIG Bolanta, to relocate to Port Harcourt on March 14, 2016 for pre-elections preparations with a view to ensuring conducive environment for free, fair and credible election.
“The IG, while disclosing that three Commissioners of Police have been deployed to supervise security arrangements in the three senatorial districts, Rivers East, Rivers West and Rivers South-East, stated that 6,000 conventional policemen and 14 Units of Police Mobile Force personnel (MOPOL) would be deployed to complement the personnel of Rivers State Command during the election.
“In addition, the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Department of Operations, DIG Sontoye Wakama, has also been directed to proceed to Rivers State immediately to hold meetings with stakeholders and police officers in the state command on the need for peaceful conduct before, during and after the elections.
“The IG, while assuring law-abiding electorate of a secure and enabling environment to exercise their franchise, warns all security details to desist from accompanying their principals and politicians to polling booths and collation centres during the election.
“He emphasized that only security personnel specially assigned for election duties must be seen within and around the designated election places.”
-Leadership/Vanguard
