Minister of Transportation and Director- General of President Buhari 2019 Campaign Organisation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, is accusing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike and the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator, representing Rivers South-East in the Senate, Magnus Abe, of conniving and conspiring to disparage and defame him.
Amaechi, who is the immediate past governor of Rivers State and the leader of the APC in Rivers State and the South-South, says the duo of Abe and Wike “are plotting to use his former cabinet members to tell fake, concocted and distorted stories to the media that are meant to denigrate him, impugn his unblemished integrity and paint a very terrible image of him to members of the public.” In a statement released by his media office, Friday, the minister claimed that the plot is already far-gone and persons are being coached on what to say and how to say it.
The statement read: “I am aware that two former commissioners who served in the State Executive Council when I was governor have been procured by Wike and Abe, jointly and collaboratively, to carry out this hatchet job of ‘hack Amaechi down’ campaign. The plan is to throw as much dirt at me as possible and rubbish my image.
“While one is being coached in Rivers State Government House of what to say to the press and how to say it, to do maximum damage; the other one is busy distorting, concocting and fabricating fake screenshots, text messages, documents and all sorts in Senator Abe’s Freedom House campaign office in Port Harcourt; that they intend to release to the media to tarnish my image. “I want to alert the media and members of the public of the smear plot by these two political collaborators (Wike and Abe), to unjustly discredit and smear me for their selfish political reasons.”
Amaechi noted that he would not be distracted by any cheap, fake smear campaign of calumny against him, while urging Rivers people to pay no heed to the “desperate attentionseeking duo of Wike and Abe and all of their fabricated lies” but focus on the goal of ensuring that Rivers State gets a better leader that would turn around the fortune of the state and its people for good, come 2019.
He insisted that no amount of sabotage and fake stories will deter him and all genuine APC members, supporters and Rivers people from “changing and voting out the inept government in Rivers State, next year.” Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, in his reaction last night, through Rivers Commissioner for Information and Communications, Chief Emma Okah, stated that the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, was being haunted by his ugly actions, asking him to face the judgment of the people, instead of deluding himself that he (Wike) was after him. Wike declared that Amaechi falsely accused him and Senator Magnus Abe (Rivers Southeast) of conspiring to defame him (transportation minister). Okah said: “The assertion (by Amaechi) is false.
Governor Wike has no time to take issues with paper tigers and base politicians, who cannot win elections in their wards and local governments, without the help of security agencies. “Senator Abe is an adult and a distinguished member of the National Assembly, who does not need any collaboration to resist the wrong visited upon him by the former governor of Rivers State), by denying him right to political aspiration. “Every Nigerian knows the love lost between Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and the Transportation Minister and since 2013.
The latter has used every opportunity to insult the governor of Rivers State and his government and he sees nothing wrong with that. Why is the transportation minister now afraid of receiving a little of the same meal he has served others? “While the transportation minister is diverting attention from the obvious questions of his failure to attract any project to Rivers State, despite the enormous sacrifice the state made in bringing about the APC-led government at the centre, the government and people of Rivers State will remain focused in demanding explanations on the economic rape he (Amaechi) inflicted on the state and the failure of his party to plant any project in the state.” Efforts to speak with Abe’s spokesperson, Parry Benson, was unsuccessful as his mobile line was not reachable.
Text and WhatsApp messages sent to his mobile line had yet to be replied, as at press time. The Director-General of Abe’s governorship campaign organisation, and former Rivers Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice in Amaechi’s government, Worgu Boms, declined comment when our correspondent reached out to him on the telephone. Senator Abe on his part, neither answered calls put through to his MTN mobile line nor replied the text and WhatsApp messages sent to him
