Former governor of Rivers State and the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has described the allegation of corruption levelled against him by Governor Nyesom Wike as spurious and deceitful.
Wike had during a thanksgiving service at the St, Peter’s Anglican Church in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, accused Amaechi of using the sum of $150m belonging to the state to fund the All Progressives Congress elections within 18 days.
The governor also vowed to recover all funds stolen from the state coffers.
But Ameachi, in a statement from his media office on Monday, expressed regret that Wike chose a church to talk about an imaginary tale of a stolen $150m.
He recalled in the statement that he had earlier challenged the governor and his agents to go to court and prove his corruption claim rather than chose to carry out their probe trial and conviction in the media.
The statement read in part, “The ‘story-story’ this time is about another phantom $150m that Amaechi purportedly stole from Rivers State Government coffers and siphoned to his party, the All Progressives Congress within 18 days from December 1 to 18 of 2014.
“Sadly again, Wike picked a church, a sacred temple of God to tell his new imaginary tale, another bogus, fallacious concoction. This new scurrilous fabrication by Governor Wike is in sync with the one-point agenda of the Wike administration, which is to throw as much mud as possible at former governor Amaechi, hoping that some may at least stick.”
The transport minister explained that making a new allegation of corruption against him on a daily basis would not make Rivers people forget that most of the institutions built by the his (Amaechi) administration were currently been allowed to rot away in spite of the billions of naira that had accrued to the state.
He said, “Rivers people want to know why weeds and grasses have taken over the beautiful schools built by Amaechi? Why the standard working health facilities Amaechi built and left behind are now looking desolate and abandoned?
“Rivers people are concerned and worried that crime and criminals are back and have taken over. No quantum of mudslinging and attempt to disparage the inspiring legacies of the Amaechi years in Rivers State would distract Rivers people from these issues.”
PUNCH NG
