… Peterside says Wike case is lost, as owners have stepped forward
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State insists the $43 million found in Ikoyi apartments belong to the state and wants Christians to pray for its return. His major opponent and key ally of the minister of transportation (Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi), Dakuku Peterside, who is the director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), says Wike’s claim for the discovered money crashed when a Federal Government agency stepped forward to claim ownership.
Peterside said the owners of the two apartments involved and the man who built and sold the apartments had all come out to lay claims, and that none was from Amaechi.
Speaking at Easter church service at Saint Peter’s Anglican Church in Rumuepirikom, his hometown, Wike said the church had a responsibility to pray that God should touch the Federal Government of Nigeria to return the money to the coffers of Rivers State, “because the money belongs to Rivers State government.”
Governor Wike stated that contrary to the claims being peddled by the embattled Minister of Transportation, that he has not declared war on the Federal Government, but the Rivers State Government was simply requesting the return of funds belonging to the state.
He said: “I cannot declare war on the Federal Government. Anybody bringing Buhari’s name, should leave Buhari and face his own problems. The issue is who kept the money at the Ikoyi residence. The money was kept there by the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.”
The governor emphasised that: “No amount of blackmail, no amount of distraction will stop us from getting our money.”
He said between 70 and 80 percent of the APC campaigns in 2015 were sponsored using funds sourced by the Rivers State government under the leadership of Rotimi Amaechi.
Speaking further, Rivers State governor said the idea of the selective war of corruption would not help development in the country. He wondered why security intelligence worked on opponents of the Federal Government, but when glaring corruption issues pop up like the Ikoyi case, where billions of dollars belonging to Rivers State had been found, the war on corruption was suspended and diversionary tactics adopted.
The governor had earlier threatened to use a large number of lawyers to fight for the return of the Ikoyi billions, saying he had evidence that it was Rivers money taken away by Amaechi. Amaechi has denied ownership of the funds.
Reacting, a statement released by his media office on Saturday, Amaechi described the claims as malicious, frivolous and another failed attempt by Wike to divert attention from the mess he had created in Rivers State.
According to the statement, “Wike and his gang have frittered billions and billions of naira of Rivers people money away. Rivers State is perpetually in crisis, the state in a mess as Wike has made a total mess of governance in the state. He doesn’t know what to do. Wike’s only solution is to attack Amaechi.”
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