Chairman of Presidential Task Force on Power, BeksDagogo-Jack, has said President Goodluck Jonathan is more of a Kalabari man than Governor Chibuike Amaechi can ever be.
He was reacting to a statement credited to Governor Amaechi who accused President Jonathan of taking sides in the Soku oil wells crisis between Bayelsa and Rivers states. The governor was also accused of using uncomplimentary words against the president and his wife at different fora and on radio stations in Port Harcourt.
According to a statement signed by Dagogo-Jack, while Governor Amaechi’s colleagues were working very closely with federal agencies to attract projects to their states, he was more interested in carrying out propaganda, wars against Jonathan.
The statement read in part: “I must say that it is an insult on the intelligence of Kalabari people for Governor Amaechi to keep saying that the Trans-Kalabari Road which he has since abandoned from the inception of his government should now be seen as a federal inflicted problem to the state.
“Amaechi is known to have spent billions of dollars accruing to our state from mainly Kalabari and Orashi oil and gas bearing-communities on all sorts of projects like the landscaping of Port Harcourt city, the needless new state university campus, the ubiquitous greater Port Harcourt and the dead-on-arrival Monorail, to name a few, none of which curiously is located in these oil bearing-communities.
“Yet, the only economically sensible project in Kalabariland, the Trans-Kalabari Road, which he has refused to fund since he became the governor of our state, is now a tool for his masterplan to create enemies for President Jonathan in Kalabariland. I want to assure Amaechi that Kalabari people have been impoverished and emasculated by his deliberate policies over the past eight years.
“On the Soku/Nembe oil wells boundary delineation, Amaechi probably doesn’t know that Kalabari people have over 100 years of history with their Nembe brothers, with long established methods for conflict management and resolution. We do not need an Amaechi to either induce or incite us to go to war with ourselves. The billions of naira that we hear have been reportedly wasted to support anti-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) activities in the state and nationwide are enough to transform Kula and Soku into one of the best tourist destinations in West Africa. While these communities remain totally neglected and abandoned, Amaechi continues to wage an unnecessary media war, ostensibly on behalf of these communities, against President Jonathan.
“It is sad that today Amaechi sees himself as the all-knowing trustee and keeper of Kalabari people’s rights, and feels entitled to drag them to wherever he wants to, by their noses. I plead with our governor to please leave Kalabari people alone. Let me state that President Jonathan is more Kalabari than Governor Amaechi can ever hope to be. So, the earlier he wakes up from his slumber to face the reality on the ground, the better for him and his diminishing followers, most of whom are indeed eagerly waiting for the right time to do the needful.”
