Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has declared that there are authentic documents to be presented as evidence of corruption against his predecessor and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. Wike said that the evidence is so overwhelming and that Amaechi admitted publicly that he sold the state’s gas turbines. The governor alleged that the proceeds of the sale were diverted during Amaechi’s administration.
Wike, who stated this yesterday when he addressed the 106th Quarterly Meeting of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers in Port Harcourt, noted that Amaechi admitted paying $39 million for a non-existent Justice Karibi Whyte Mega Specialist Hospital. Wike said: “All the documents that proved Amaechi’s corrupt acts are authentic.
We never forged documents. The former governor himself admitted that he paid out $39 million to Clinotech, without a single block laid anywhere. Is that a document he claimed was forged? Where is the hospital? “He has agreed in different interviews that he sold the state gas turbines for $309million.
Convert $309 million to naira and you will understand the level of fraud. Amaechi left only $204,000 in the state account. “The bank statements of the pattern of withdrawals from that account are there for all to see. Can that be forged? The dates and amounts withdrawn are clearly written.”
The governor berated Amaechi for engaging in the blackmail of the Supreme Court because his appeal is pending before the apex court over the establishment of the Rivers State Judicial Commission of Inquiry. “There is no time that he loses a case without blackmailing the judiciary.
He feels that the only way he can do it is to blackmail the Supreme Court. You cannot play politics with everything,” Wike said. The governor, who also commented on the use of hotels for electoral fraud, warned that any hotel that opens its facility for electoral fraud and malpractice will lose its operational certificate of occupancy.
He said: “Any hotel that is used to rig elections, that hotel’s certificate of occupancy will be withdrawn. I will not allow that anymore.” He regretted that the former Rivers State Governor has continued to work against the interest of the state, refusing to use his position as a minister to attract benefits to the people.
He also warned traditional rulers against working with armed gangs to cause insecurity in their communities. Earlier, the Chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers and Amayanabo of Opobo, King Dandeson Jaja commended the governor for the commencement of the reconstruction of 175 public schools across the state, just as he appealed to the governor to set up a process to check the sale of illicit drugs in the state.
