•Denies promising to return abandoned property to Igbo in Rivers
Former Rivers State governor and immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, yesterday, said the amount of state funds that the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike spent on alcohol in two weeks, was equivalent to the amount he (Amaechi) spent to build one primary school, when he served as governor.
Amaechi, who claimed that Wike’s lifestyle has been shortchanging Rivers people and wasting state funds, however, denied reports that he promised to return to the Igbo, their abandoned property during the civil war, if the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tonye Cole, was elected on Saturday.
Speaking during his campaign for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, in Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Area, Amaechi said, “The person Wike buys alcohol from, said Wike spends 50 million naira every week on alcohol.
“The primary schools we built is 112 million naira, it means that in two weeks, Wike has drunk one primary school. When Wike talks, it is alcohol that is talking. And he’s so shameless about it. Wike told the whole world on live TV that he was drinking a very expensive 40 year old whiskey, in the morning.
“We are asking INEC to be neutral. The people have rejected Wike and his government. Every street I went to, people were jumping on top of me shouting. They were remembering that I built 5 flyovers, I did not dance. We employed 400 new doctors, bought cars for 600 doctors, bought ambulances for all the health centres.
“We went round primary schools to see what’s going on, and discovered there were no teachers, so we hired 13,200 teachers. By the time I left as governor, there was a contractor in every school to maintain the school. Where are the schools that he (Wike) built?” Amaechi said.
He however, described Wike, as a drunk, who spends N50 million on alcohol every week and therefore, should not be allowed a third term through his stooge.
On the abandoned property case, Amaechi, in a statement personally signed, said, “We have observed as unscrupulous and ill-advised, elements have twisted and misrepresented the speech made by Rt Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi during his stakeholders meeting with Igbos in Rivers State last week.
“We are astonished that even the respected Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers fell for the false story and fake news being propagated by the Rivers State Governor without making any effort to clarify what Amaechi actually said.
“Yet, they went ahead to address the media, castigating and condemning the immediate past Rivers State Governor on the basis of a fake, ill-conceived story obviously concocted by the current failed Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike.
“We would ordinarily not respond to these kind of comments deliberately twisted by the rarely sober Governor Wike and his agents of wickedness and mischief, who Rivers people and Nigerians know trade in divisive fake news, to malign the person and character of Amaechi.
Reproducing what he said for the record, the statement stated: “That Amaechi did not and have never said anything about compensation on abandoned properties to the Igbo in Rivers State. That he only rehashed his apology to the Igbo, when he became governor of Rivers State, that he was sorry on behalf of the state on abandoned properties from the Nigerian civil war.
“That if he had been in power at that time, he would never have let that happen. All of us who are here know that when I became Governor, the first thing I said to the Igbo was ‘I am sorry, I am sorry on abandoned property. I said, if I were governor when they were doing abandoned property, I would not accept. So, in my speech to the Igbo (as governor), I said I am sorry on behalf of Rivers State.
“That Amaechi only mentioned compensation when he spoke about people who are being intimidated, harassed and threatened with violence due to their choice of voting and support for the APC in the upcoming governorship and State Assembly election.
“We need you to come out, we need you to stand, we need you not to be harassed. If they burn any of your houses or they burn any of your shop, write your name. We will replace everything they burned, everything you lost. Rivers State government will not start if we win, without paying you back.”
