The Minister of Transportation and immediate past governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has said that Governor Nyesom Wike has no evidence to prove the allegations of corruption against him, Punch reports.
Wike had on Monday claimed that he had overwhelming evidence of Amaechi’s corrupt acts while he was governor of the state.
Amaechi had maintained that he ran a transparent administration devoid of any corrupt practice that Wike attributed to him.
The Minister of Transportation, who spoke through his Media Office, dismissed Wike’s claims, describing them as the same old, false, provocative “coming from rabble-rousing of a distinctly delusional mind.”
Amaechi insisted that Wike had been forging documents to defame, disparage and vilify him since he (Wike) assumed office in his desperate bid to portray him as corrupt.
“Wike has nothing, we mean absolutely nothing concrete, to prove his fabricated claims. However, we are aware; as a matter of fact, it’s now public knowledge that Wike has been forging and distorting a cache of documents in his increasingly frantic efforts to denigrate Amaechi.
“Nigerians were shocked a few days back when Livingstone Wechie, the young man Wike used to accuse Amaechi of corruption and write false and frivolous petitions to the National Assembly, the EFCC e.t.c., confessed freely and openly, that all the documents he used to wrongfully portray Amaechi as corrupt when he governed Rivers State, were forged documents given to him by Wike’s Rivers State Government House.”
The minister added, “It is ludicrous and appalling that Wike is still talking about his credibility-bereft Commission of Inquiry, when Livingstone Wechie also admitted that the forged documents were what were used as the template, the basis for the Justice Omereji-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry, an inquisition panel Wike set up early in his administration to malign and persecute Amaechi.”
The former governor said Rivers people should not take Wike seriously as he had once claimed to have evidence that he (Amaechi) was the owner of the $43m Ikoyi money and apartment, but failed to bring forth such evidence.
Amaechi maintained that Wike’s antics were a clear attempt to distract attention from his plundering of the resources of the state and the spate of insecurity in Rivers.
“Nigerians are now used to Wike’s shameful charade whenever he says he has ‘evidence’ against Amaechi. How can we forget in a hurry when Wike outrageously claimed he had evidence to prove Amaechi’s ownership of the $43m Ikoyi money and luxury apartment?
“In spite of all the noise Wike made, all his over-the-top political dramatisation of Amaechi ownership of the Ikoyi money, Wike could not even go to court to claim the money with his so-called evidence. Wike has suddenly gone deaf and dumb on the Ikoyi money many months after his seven-day ultimatum for the Federal Government to give him the money or face the mother of all legal actions.
“How can anyone take a character like Wike seriously, especially when he says he has evidence against Amaechi? How can a governor talk so recklessly and irresponsibly?”
“Wike must realise that every lie has an expiry date. Rivers people are tired and sick of Wike’s fake stories of ‘Amaechi this, Amaechi that’ every day; rather the people want to know what happened to all the billions of naira Wike has collected from FAAC, Paris Club loan refunds, internally generated revenue and the ones he borrowed.”
Reacting, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Electronic Media, Mr. Simeon Nwakaudu, said nothing had changed from what the governor said about Amaechi.
Nwakaudu maintained that Amaechi must face prosecution based on his actions while he was a governor.
“Nothing has changed from what the governor said. The governor had maintained his position; Amaechi must face prosecution,” he stressed.
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