Failed Immediate Past Rivers State Governor and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is drowning politically. Therefore, he is permitted to clutch at straws. He is permitted to cry at the roof tops and peddle series of lies in a bid to curry sympathy from unsuspecting members of the public .
The death of APC in Rivers State was not orchestrated by Governor Wike. It was not planned by Governor Wike and neither was it executed by Governor Wike. It was strictly the handiwork of the embattled Minister of Transportation who personally destroyed the weak framework of the non-existent political party by his utter disrespect for the rule of law. This defines his politics of exclusion.
I must add very quickly. APC has never existed as a political party in Rivers State. In the true sense of the word, what you have are few political associates looking up to the Failed APC Federal Government for the release of security agencies to maim, kill and snatch electoral results.
Amaechi is an extremely sad man. He is unhappy that Governor Wike has sent him on compulsory political retirement. A place of solitude where his stolen wealth counts for nothing in the political mathematics of Rivers State. He is embattled because Governor Wike and other stakeholders have returned power to the ordinary Rivers man and woman. He is weeping because the entire country including the Presidency understand his shallowness when it comes to Rivers politics.
It is on this premise, that I say that the ranting of Amaechi at the ill-fated and bloody Rivers APC Presidential Campaign Rally in Port Harcourt was the last kick of a dying horse. The ugly attempt to Stoke violence, deaths and public fear ahead of the general elections is unheard of. E
Amaechi by threatening to kill Rivers people in the full glare of the world, including the President, underscored the quantum of killings he has sponsored and encouraged over time. During the rerun Legislative Elections, Amaechi backed by Federal Security Forces unleashed mayhem and deaths on Rivers people. With SARs Commander, Akin Fakorede as his arrowhead, he snatched ballot boxes and killed at will. The intention was to get two-third majority at the Rivers State House of Assembly to impeach Governor Wike. Rivers people stood their ground, defended their votes at the expense of their lives. Democracy prevailed.
It is easy for Amaechi to play the Ostrich and sing Igbo war songs. But he must be reminded very clearly that he shut the door on his party men, destroyed the united party secretariat at Forces Avenue and used SARs Personnel to cart away Congress forms to Intels from where he wrote names of his associates. The same Minister of Transportation used Novotel Hotel as his base to rig the non-elective congresses of his political party. These unwholesome activities were duly reported in the media.
When Ibrahim Umah and 22 other Rivers APC Factional Members went to court and got injunction restraining the APC from going ahead with congresses, it was the same Amaechi that announced in the press that he will disrespect the order. With the support of security agencies, he wrote down the names of his associates as executives and candidates of his party from the comfort of his hotel room.
The legal implications of Amaechi’s illegality has come to the fore. Beginning from the Rivers State High Court presided over by Justice Chinwendu Nwogu to the Supreme Court, the pronouncement is clear. Rivers APC will not field candidates during the 2019 elections because they never conducted valid primaries recognised by law. Even before that judgment, Amaechi sponsored thugs to invade the Rivers State High Court. But his thugs were resisted by Rivers people .
Amaechi can trade blames as much as he wants, but the truth remains that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike at no time, encouraged Amaechi to be reckless and disrespectful of the law. He never told Amaechi to go ahead with congresses and primaries during the pendency of suits by his disgruntled party men.
Rivers people rejected Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi because of his treacherous politics. They sent him packing because he personalised governance, stole their resources and promoted politics as a personal business. He never promoted Rivers Goals.
In 2015, Amaechi used siphoned Rivers resources to sponsor APC National Campaigns. Rivers people are still unhappy that Amaechi used their resources to betray the Niger Delta region, yet there is nothing across the state to show Federal Presence.
God in his infinite mercy has compelled Amaechi to confess to the planned bloodletting against Rivers people ahead of the Presidential election. The international community and civil society organisations must be on red alert to check these killers.
But the threat will not stop Rivers people from voting enmasse for all PDP candidates, beginning with incoming President Atiku Abubakar.
Amaechi in his rant claimed that Governor Wike negotiated with them (APC) to allow him continue as Governor while he will support failed President Buhari. This is a poorly scripted falsehood that is nonsensical and childish. Like Governor Wike said during the Non-indigenes Campaign Rally, Amaechi deserves psychiatric evaluation because such bunkum cannot come from a sane mind.
This is the same line Amaechi has sponsored, using a Buhari social media agent who has run into troubled waters. This same falsehood has been sponsored by Amaechi in several traditional media, especially The Nation Newspaper.
Amaechi is clever by half. This last minute false charge is to attract relevance to himself in the face of rejection. To attract media attention and justify his political obscurity. Otherwise, what other benefit is derivable from the lie.
There is no meeting point between darkness and light. Amaechi is darkness in its ugliest form. He brags about violence, under-development and political exclusion. But all through that campaign rally, no APC leader mentioned a single project in Rivers State or what they intend to do to get the votes of the people. Governor Wike is the light of Rivers State and the Niger Delta. He is positioned by God to resist the forces of darkness.
Rivers State is PDP. The party like Governor Wike said is a tradition of the people. When Amaechi left the PDP to chase personal goals, that was the very day that he severed ties with the people. When he got 57,000 security personnel to rig the rerun Legislative Elections, that was when he lost the opportunity to make restitution.
Governor Wike, since 2015, has changed the narrative of development in Rivers State. He has planted projects across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state. He has built human capacity and revived the economy. Despite attempts to sabotage him by people like Amaechi, he has restored security of lives and property.
He does not need the approval of external forces to be re-elected. Over the last few weeks, Governor Wike has traversed the 23 Local Government Areas of the state, explaining to the people why they should re-elect him. He campaigned on the premise of his projects, assuring the people that he will continue to place their interest above any other considerations. In all these places, the people without equivocation endorsed Wike’s second term.
I have this to say to Amaechi. The key to Brick House is neither found in Abuja , Police Headquarters, Army headquarters or even the Naval Warships. The Key to Brick House resides with Rivers People and they have resolved to give it to Nyesom Ezenwo Wike to continue with his good works. This has been confirmed by God through his servants and Christian Women .
After vomitting threats to Rivers people, Amaechi shunned the meeting between Buhari and Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers. As a man consumed by ego, he could not accord the traditional rulers any iota of respect. This is one of the reasons Rivers people deserted Amaechi.
For the Presidential Election, the choice of Rivers people have been published and broadcast severally on traditional and social media. Governor Wike on Campaign Engagements made it clear that Rivers people will vote Atiku Abubakar. He has campaigned for him in 23 Local Government Areas. PDP members of the State, Local Government , Ward and Unit Campaign Councils are campaigning for Atiku Abubakar daily. In all the 4442 Polling Units, the Presence of PDP is overwhelming.
On that other hand, Amaechi never campaigned for APC or Buhari. Buhari is not known anywhere in Rivers State. He cannot make any progress at the polls.
Amaechi may have access to agencies of state violence, but Rivers people will prevail. They always do. Rivers people are with Governor Wike and Governor Wike is pro-Rivers . The establishment of New Rivers will continue unhindered till 2023. That is the will of Rivers people.
*** Simeon Nwakaudu is Governor Nyesom Wike’s spokesman.
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