Furore in Rivers as Wike goes full blast against Amaechi

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has just revealed that he knew that Judith Amaechi, wife of his former boss, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, was collecting N3 million from every local council boss per month during her husband’s tenure as governor. The ex-governor’s main loyalist, Dakuku Peterside, countered that it must be Wike as then chief of staff that must have extorted such sums without Madam’s knowledge, if ever it happened. He also accused Wike of running a bloodthirsty regime. This is the gubernatorial succession narrative of present-day Rivers State and the vitriolic level of the state’s political acidity.

Political observers say last thing that Amaechi, immediate past governor of Rivers State and now Minister of Transportation, would want is for his hostile successor, kinsman and former ally, Nyesom Wike, to stay even a day after May 29, 2019. On the other hand, Wike, former Minister of State for Education, would not want to hear that an Amaechi man took over from him in 2019, in view of the ugly realities of hostile succession, probes, stoppage of projects, rubbishing of image and programmes, disruption of predecessor’s peace, threat to interests, etc. Both gladiators are said to be fully aware of each other’s clear intentions and job description.
The difference, however, seems to be that while one may be planning hard in wait for 2019, the other has already charged out. Also, while Amaechi’s powers and assets seem dissipated around the entire nation as a minister, Wike’s powers and assets are concentrated in one state, 23 local council care-taker committees that take direct instruction from him, over 23 commissioners that act as direct agents, over 25 federal and state lawmakers that reach the grassroots, CEOs of several parastatals, and an annual budget exceeding N400bn.
Each has a foreboding that the other was rigging a rope around his neck, all in a political conflict that seems to flush into an inevitability and conclusion that one cannot survive unless the other is destroyed. Amaechi loyalists make it look like facts have been assembled and that the day after Wike is out of office/immunity, the noose would descend. This was also the message Wike and his team openly sent out while Amaechi was ending his rule as governor.
On the other hand, Wike’s men seem to urge their master to fight with every gubernatorial advantage to get his bitterest rival behind bars while there is still time. This seems to define the endless hostility and brutal verbal warfare between the two previous political bedmates.
Signs of things to come
Signs of evil ahead seemed available to each rival. Wike had got wind that his house in Abuja was being searched. He claimed he had immunity but APC lords in the state reminded him that immunity only covered government or official quarters and did not preclude investigation but prosecution.
Soon after, the APC got wind that something sinister was being cooked up in the Brick House in Port Harcourt. The party said it had uncovered an ongoing plot by Gov Wike to tarnish the image of Amaechi through manifest falsehood soon to be placed in the media.
“The plot involves extensive forgeries and fabrications of various seemingly sensitive documents to further buttress the lie that the Osborne Road, Ikoyi money confiscated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) belonged to the minister who obtained same from the coffers of Rivers State Government while he was governor of the state,” the party claimed.
The APC said it was saddened that more than two years after being sworn in as governor of Rivers State, Wike was still hell-bent on destroying the image of his former boss, benefactor and predecessor, adding, “We wish to remind him that his evil plans for the man who gave him a lift in life will continue to fail to his grief.”
APC’s jabs
Ahead of whatever he feared Wike was cooking, Chris Finebone, APC publicity secretary, released some jabs in which he recalled that Gov Wike stood before God and men in a church in Etche to say the Federal Government was undermining his government by slashing the state’s monthly allocations.
“He refused to tell the truth that he had earlier pledged a good chunk of the state’s future monthly allocations as collateral security to commercial banks for the huge loans he took at double-digit interest rate,” Finebone claimed.
“Like in the case of the federal allocations, the governor recently told another group of clergymen during a church programme that the Federal Government paid the state only N17 billion as refund on Paris Club loan and not N34 billion as claimed by the Federal Government. However, evidence made available to the APC by officials of Federal Ministry of Finance indicates that Gov Nyesom Wike actually signed and collected N34 billion as Paris Club loan refund for Rivers State.
“The APC is convinced that fearing that these are about to be made public, Gov Wike has decided to raise spurious allegations against the Minister of Transportation being his usual style of diverting attention and shifting the focus of public scrutiny from himself. Wike knows very well that most Nigerians are poorly informed and therefore very gullible. If indeed he had any credible evidence that the Osborne Road money belonged to Amaechi or Rivers State government, we believe that he would have joyfully approached the EFCC and the court to claim the said money. We believe that the present attempt to raise spurious claims, through concocted documents, is a mere smokescreen to cover up the obvious lack of transparent governance by Gov Wike,” he said.
Wike opens full blast
Choosing the same media platforms (a private radio station and a private television station) that Amaechi loved to use in his days as governor, Wike berated the former governor for superintending over a vicious insecure system that he said led to the assassination of prominent Rivers indigenes.
Governor Wike further alleged that the Federal Government was shielding Amaechi from prosecution because the former governor financed the 2015 general elections for the APC. He also claimed that the failure of the former governor to fund the operation of security agencies for over six months during his second term contributed to the degeneration of security in the state.
Speaking in a special appearance on Channels Television Sunrise Daily, Governor Wike said the former governor’s closure of courts for two years negatively affected security in the state as security agencies were overwhelmed by the challenges of managing suspects, while Rivers people were denied avenues to ventilate their grievances.
“It was under Amaechi that I was almost assassinated, when I was his Chief of Staff. Under him, Ignatius Ajuru was assassinated, Charles Nsiegbe was assassinated. Yet he says the state is not as secure as it was during his term. Justices came to say that Amaechi came to procure judgment. If it is a Federal Government that is sincere, they will not want to do anything with Amaechi. In APC, once they lose a case, they berate the judiciary. It is only when they win that they praise the judiciary,” Wike said.
“Amaechi used part of the $309m proceeds of the Rivers State Gas Turbine sale to fund the APC which is why the party rallies around him to shield him from prosecution in spite of his several indictments. The Presidential Panel has not invited us to substantiate our ownership of the Ikoyi billions and hasn’t released the report as well. So we are waiting for that before taking our next steps,” he added.
On Rivers State Golden Jubilee award to Amaechi, Wike said the extant law which stipulated that all former governors were entitled to the state award was the reason why Amaechi was nominated, but the recipient rejected it as a poisoned chalice taking away the moral burden on the state. The law is now being amended to ensure its merit is emphasized, he said.
PDP adds a blow
On its part, the Rivers State PDP accused Amaechi of using incitements as a strategy to win sympathy from Rivers people.
Felix Obuah, PDP chairman in the state, made this allegation in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Jerry Needam, in reaction to Amaechi’s comments on the security situation in the state.
According to the state PDP boss, Amaechi has adopted as a strategy to cause unnecessary stir whenever there was relative peace and stability in the state aimed at “deceiving impressionable minds into seeing him as a redeemer he has never been, is never, and will never be”.
Obuah noted that the Rivers people were now wiser and have seen the difference between a stir-crazy politician and a natural and people-driven leadership of Wike whose landmark achievements in only two years in office, he said, dwarfed the entire Amaechi’s eight years in office as wasted.
“How can one who claims he has the interest of his people in mind and plans to direct the political future of the state only find joy in castigating people including his superiors and causing disaffection even among his own party members each time he sneaks into the state? Rather than attract development projects or telling the people what programmes he has to move the state forward and empower our numerous young school leavers looking for jobs, Amaechi is only interested in inciting the people and boasting over whom he will endorse for one political office or the other and those whom he will pull down at all cost in an election two solid years away from now,” the statement said.
Former LGA bosses defend Amaechi’s wife over N3m per month
Former chairmen of local government councils and commissioners in Rivers State who worked under the Amaechi administration have also joined in the fight, saying it was not true that Judith Amaechi extorted between N2m and N3m from commissioners and LGA chairmen, respectively, while her husband was the state governor.
Realizing the magnitude and gravity of this allegation, they said they deemed it necessary to make this public clarification. They said Wike, while serving as the Chief of Staff to Governor Amaechi, interfaced regularly with council chairmen.
“With this rare privilege and his tendencies, he elected to commit a lot of practices including massive looting and various degrees of financial extortion on the council chairmen and commissioners who felt hapless due to his perceived closeness to the governor as the chief of staff.
“On several occasions, Wike hiding under the subterfuge of his office as intermediary between the then governor and other elected or appointed public officials made financial demands and extorted money from council chairmen including arm twisting them to award contracts to him.
“It is on record that several LGA projects then, including the new secretariat of Port Harcourt City Council and Etche Council, were done by Wike. Council chairmen and state officials were forced to contribute several millions of naira to Wike under the pretext of fighting his legal battle with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) when he was arrested and tried for corruption. For the most flimsy excuses Wike placed hefty levies on council chairmen. Failure to pay was usually met with stiff sanctions,” they said.
The former council chairmen and commissioners warned Gov Wike against this mischief targeted at the wife of Amaechi and urged him to tender an unreserved apology to the wife of the former governor immediately or be ready to face the consequences of his stupidity.
The statement was signed by Ojukaye Flg Amachree for LGA bosses and Fred Igwe for former commissioners.
Dakuku Peterside throws a sharp sward
Dakuku Peterside, director-general, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), while reacting to Wike’s accusations, said, “Never, never in our history have we had a governor that rarely thinks of how much damage he is doing to his family and the collective aspirations of Rivers people and generations unborn.”
Wike had claimed, among other things, that Amaechi never continued any project started by his predecessor, that local government chairmen were paying money to Amaechi’s wife on monthly basis, in addition to the former governor not finishing any project while in office and frittering away Rivers money to other states in the country because of ambition to become Vice President.
Peterside, however, said Wike was daily giving himself away as somebody who was “manifestly incompetent”. He called the governor names.
The NIMASA DG, who was commissioner for works during Amaechi’s first tenure, expressed worry over the way and manner the Rivers governor was conducting himself in public domain, especially as it relates to civility, oath of office and reverence required of the office he occupies.
“Just before the last rerun elections in Rivers State, he claimed he had a videotape evidence of where police and INEC had connived to rig the election in favour of APC. However, to this day, he has not presented any tape to Nigerians because he has none.
“Not long ago, Wike claimed he had awarded a road project in Benue State to the tune of N2bn. As I speak today, the governor has not been able to show anybody where the road is and which contractor is handling the project.
“Just recently, Wike shocked even himself when he claimed that the $43m found at a residence in Ikoyi belongs to Rivers State government. The Federal High Court in Lagos gave ample opportunity for anybody to come forward, present credible evidence and claim the money. The governor failed to show up after boasting that he had assembled lawyers to prove his claim.
“Yet again, the governor claimed that his predecessor never finished any project started by the Celetine Omehia administration. Nothing can be further from the truth. Ask Wike who awarded the multi-billion naira Eleme Junction overhead bridge interchange and who finished the project.
“As one of the cabinet members and a close family friend, I can say boldly that at no time did local government chairmen pay Amaechi’s wife monthly. This is a white lie. Interestingly, Wike was chief of staff then and he was the one that had the most interactions with council chairmen, I suspect he may have been collecting money from them using the name of the former governor’s wife,” he stressed.
With the speed of revelations, it may not take longer before the real deals and financial misdeeds that many Rivers people have been expecting from the endless quarrels between Amaechi and Wike would begin to come out.
Unfortunately, both men and their acolytes are only throwing general accusations without touching the real matters and figures such as the N4.5bn EFCC case, the schools projects, road projects, etc where Amaechi accused Wike of pocketing funds without action. Wike had always dared Amaechi to file a complaint if he meant the accusations. Time may be getting near for that.