Count me out of Amaechi’s scandal, says Wike

Governor Nyesom Wike has denied any involvement in the corruption allegation leveled against the former Governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi, who is also the transportation minister.

The All Progressives Congress (APC), had alleged that Wike had a hand in the judicial scandals that have engulfed Amaechi, the Minister of Transport.

A statement by the information commissioner of the state, Dr. Austin Tam-George said that Governor Wike had refrained from making public comments on this subject because the people of Rivers State feel sadly vindicated by these latest scandals swirling around the Transport Minister.

“In the run up to his screening by the Senate for the post of Minister in the federal cabinet in 2015, Nigerians were warned about Mr Amaechi’s egregious antecedents in public office.

“As governor of Rivers State, Mr Amaechi left a shameful record of waste and dysfunction. His thoughtless policies and mismanagement of public funds literally broke the economic spine of Rivers State.

“After his tenure in Rivers State, Mr Amaechi was indicted for stealing public funds by a court-approved panel of inquiry”, the statement said.

According to the Commissioner, “Amaechi has of course always protested his innocence. But even chieftains of his party, the APC, including serving governors, have publicly praised Mr Amaechi for bankrolling the party’s presidential campaigns in the 2015 general elections, and for sponsoring candidates in that election.

Wike, Rivers State Governor

“Amaechi’s financial contributions to the APC, estimated to be in billions of Naira, constitute serious financial crime against the people of Rivers State.

“The allegations made against the Transport Minister by the justices of the court are therefore hardly surprising, because the scandals fall within a pattern of his moral turpitude in public life.

Rather than blame others for Amaechi’s woes, Nigerians expect the APC to ask the Minister to step down from office, in order to allow for a dispassionate inquiry into the serious allegations against him.

“All the federal anti-corruption agencies have so far treated the serious allegations against Mr Amaechi with the moral timidity of Lucifer’s wife”.

He said that any war against corruption that does not begin with Mr. Amaechi in the dock is a mere fishing expedition.

“Amaechi’s continuous presence in the federal cabinet is an ugly moral sore, a dark blight on the so-called fight against corruption”.