Amaechi blast Gov Wike over comments on monorail project
(Nigeria) Minister of Transportation and former governor of Rivers
State, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has warned the state governor, Mr Nyesom Wike to stop
playing politics with the lives of Rivers people, just as he noted that the monorail
project belonged to the state and not him (Amaechi).
Amaechi’s Media Office in a statement on Tuesday, said “We
watched with disbelief the recent television interview of Governor Wike,
excerpts of which had also been used in some newspapers. It was the typical
Wike, twisting, butchering and turning the truth upside down and in most cases
telling outright deceptive lies in his failed bid to denigrate, tarnish and
rubbish the towering image, person and laudable, landmark achievements of his
predecessor and now Minister of Transportation, Mr Amaechi.
“Most troubling, was Wike’s propensity, without any qualms
whatsoever, to play politics with the safety and security of the lives of
Rivers people. This is indeed most worrisome. It is no secret that Wike plays
politics with development, the welfare and well-being of Rivers people. But no
government should play politics with the safety and security of its citizens
like Wike is sadly and shamelessly doing.
“Governor Wike claimed that the brutal political killings
and murder of the All Progressives Congress, APC, members and other hapless
citizens in the state are cult related or a result of cult clashes. What cult
wars is he talking about? Since he claimed to have security reports, we
challenge Wike to tell Rivers people the cult group that Franklin Obi, the APC
Ward chairman in Omoku, belongs to, that led to his being gruesomely, beheaded
and butchered, alongside his pregnant wife and teenage son. “Or did Franklin
suddenly became a cult member because he had the guts and courage to host a
resoundingly successful ward meeting of APC faithful in the same ward as Wike’s
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, sState chairman, Felix Obuah, just a few days to
the re-run elections? We challenge Wike to tell us the cult groups and the cult
wars that led to the killing of the innocent youth corper, Chukwudumeibi Okonta
on the re-run Election Day? Was the Youth Corper a cultist or victim of cult
wars or yet another victim of politically motivated killings in Rivers State?
“Wike must tell Rivers people the cult wars that led to the
killing of hundreds of Rivers people since the so-called election that made him
governor, and the cult groups that all those that have been murdered, belong
to. Wike’s cult wars/cultists claim is
akin to insulting and spitting on the graves and memories of all those murdered
and their families.
“With pity, we watched as Wike tried to compare the
political killing of the late Okonta and Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC adhoc staff on the rerun
election day in Rivers State to the fire accident that occurred at the
home of the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kano State days after the elections of
2015. How pathetic. Even for Wike, this is a new low.
“On the Rivers Monorail project, Governor Wike said that he
will not touch Amaechi’s monorail and that the entire state has told him not to
continue with the project. Can someone please tell Wike that the monorail
belongs to Rivers State and it’s not Amaechi’s private monorail? Pray, Governor
Wike, which Rivers people told you not to touch the monorail project?
“Is it the same Rivers people that have consistently praised
the project and see it as a catalyst to jump-start the local economy and place
the state at the forefront of transport infrastructural development in Africa?
Or is Wike aggregating the jaundiced views of the coterie of court-jesters that
hang around him daily, as the opinion of the entire people of the State? It is
sad, very sad that Wike has elected to play politics with this laudable project
that was almost completed before Amaechi left office.
“Governor Wike also described several ongoing projects in
the state when Amaechi left office as ‘abandoned projects’ that he claimed to
have completed or about to complete. He specifically mentioned the
Ogoni-Andoni-Opobo Unity Road that connects the Island of Opobo to Andoni and
the rest of the State. What a shameless
lie. This project was ongoing and was
almost completed as at May 29, 2015. May we also remind Wike that the Eagle
Island- Diobu Road that he once claimed to have been abandoned was 90 percent
completed with just the final course of coal tar remaining as at when he
succeeded Amaechi.
“It’s repudiating that Wike would even attempt to rubbish
and destroy the laudable projects and achievements Amaechi made in the health
and educational sectors as governor. Shamefully, what has happened in the past
months since Wike became governor is that Wike has neglected the model schools
and health facilities built by Amaechi and have allowed them to rot away, taken
over by weeds and grasses, in tandem with his policy of not wanting to touch
Amaechi’s projects or build on Amaechi’s enduring legacies. Governor Wike,
these projects belong to Rivers State and its people, not Amaechi.”
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