The Rivers State Government, Saturday, accused a former governor of the State and transport minister, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of promoting anarchy in the State.
The government made the allegation in a press statement by Dr. Austin Tam-George, Commissioner for Information and Communication in the State.
The statement read in full:
“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.
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 Mohammadu 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 Or
o igwe 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.”
previous post
next post
