Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike has accused his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, of allegedly spending the sum of one hundred and fifty million dollars ($150m) to finance the 2015 elections of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Wike made the allegation while speaking at a thanksgiving service held at Saint Peter’s Anglican Church, Rumueprikom, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.
He said Amaechi who was Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation allegedly spent the huge sum between December 1 and 18, 2014 to sponsor the national election campaigns of APC.
Wike vowed to recover monies belonging to the state, just as he called for a comprehensive fight against corruption and canvassed support for the prosecution of all those behind the alleged looting of funds.
The governor further said a plot had been hatched to arrest and detain him before the national and state assemblies rerun elections which had been postponed to March 19, 2016.
Wike restated his earlier declaration that he would not allow the rigging of the rerun elections in the state, warning that any INEC staff who attempts to rig would be treated as an armed robber.
“Nothing is impossible with God. We won the election clearly as confirmed by the Supreme Court. If there was a rerun, I wouldn’t have contested because there would have been bloodbath. I resolved not to be part of anything that would bring bloodbath,” he said.
“I am the executive governor of Rivers State and a strong one for that matter. We will support INEC to conduct credible elections. However, any official who plans to rig will get the treatment reserved for armed robbers”, he said.
In his sermon, Archbishop of the Niger Delta Province, Ignatius Kattey, said the victory of Governor Wike at the Supreme Court had brought peace to the state and called on the governor to be the father of all the people of the state.
Earlier the Governor praised his legal team, which he said consist of 21 Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
He said, “Blood would have flown if the election was going to hold again. Many people were being arrested.
“I would call the security men, asking why they would say they were going to make sure there won’t be any problem.
“So I called some people including the Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus that I was not going to run again. They said why and I explained that if I did, many people would die.”
Wike said that he was having high blood pressure because his close allies were defecting to other parties.
“If you are not a politician, stand where you are because you will collapse”, he told the gathering.
He added that “On the day of the judgment, we were sitting in the parlour when my CSO came to tell me that I was going to lose, and I would be arrested.
“I asked him to leave my house. He said whether there was nothing we could do, I said he should leave.
“I pray that my enemy should continue to have permanent high blood pressure. I wouldn’t pray that God will heal them.
“My own has come down now, and for seven months it was high. It is time for their own to rise.
“Members of the Assembly (whose elections were nullified) would come and cry here. Sen. Sekibo would come here and pray that I should win first and that my own is better.
“Some of them sold all they had to win the election, but their elections were nullified. Some just married and told their wives that it would be better but only to be sacked seven months later.”
Wike also said that his government would not support the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to wage war against corruption in the country.
He accused the federal government of fighting a one-sided war against corruption.
Wike said, “We would not support the fight against corruption. People took our money from the state, and we wrote to the police asking them to go and make a statement, nothing has come out of it.
“We won’t take anybody to the EFCC because I know what would happen. We know how to fight our own way. We won’t support that war against corruption that they are doing.”
Wike also told the church not to raise any project offering, saying that he has “security report that today is not good for such offering.”
Reception, which he said was going to hold at the Government House, was meant for “my own people”, and asked indigenes of the state not to attend.
The majority of the attendees at the occasion left with long faces as they seemed to have been disappointed in the governor’s pronouncement.
The church service, which was attended by governors of Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and the Abia States, were also attended by prominent politicians in the state who are members of the PDP.
The service ended at 1:44 pm.
previous post
next post
