Amaechi blasts Wike over comments on monorail, killings in Rivers state

Monorail

Belongs To Rivers State, Not
Amaechi”. This is a press statement released
by RT. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi media
office for the Gov. of Rivers state.
We watched with disgust and disbelief the
recent television interview of Rivers State
Governor Nyesom 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, Rt. Hon. Chibuike
Rotimi 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
faithfuls in the same ward as Wike’s Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) State 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 brutal murder 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 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.