Rivers: Probe of my tenure, witch-hunt – Amaechi
Former governor of Rivers State, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has described the proposed probe of his tenure by his successor, Governor Nyesom Wike, as a deliberate witch-hunt.
Amaechi said that Wike has gone ahead with his plan of threatening, coercing and blackmailing officials of his administration, especially civil servants, into making false and bogus statements that would make legitimate government transactions appear as corrupt practices.
In a statement by his media aide, David Iyofor, Amaechi urged Rivers people, the media and the public to be watchful and discern the fraudulent attempts by Governor Wike to discredit him and his administration.
He said: “As I noted earlier in a previous statement, Wike is going ahead with his plan of attempting to deride and discredit me and my administration, by blackmailing and coercing key government officials including DFAs, Permanent Secretaries and others to twist and distort legitimate government transactions in his desperation to cook up, and fabricate baseless, concocted and unfounded cases of corruption against me and the administration I ran.
BRIEFING: Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State during a Press briefing on poltically motivated violence and deaths in Rivers State. yesterday. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke.
“Only on Tuesday, Wike tried to threaten, harass, blackmail and coerce Permanent Secretaries and Directors of Finance and Administration, DFAs, in various ministries, parastatals, agencies, among others, in the state into doing his bidding of painting Amaechi as corrupt in the administration of the state. The state bankers and some of our contractors are also not spared in his mission of tarnishing Amaechi’s reputation.
As a matter of fact, Wike has only one agenda as he governs Rivers State: to portray me as corrupt, by whatever means, no matter how ridiculous and phoney it looks.”
Amaechi also described as a fraud the video and pictures of the looted and vandalized Government House that Wike has been showing.
“The images are also fraudulent, arranged and executed by Wike to enable him vote billions of naira from the state treasury to renovate and refurbish the place, while also accusing me of corruption.”