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Ikoyi $43m saga: Wike moves campaign to church for return of recovered money

Governor Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike of Rivers State has taken his campaign for the Federal Government to release the $43million dollars found in a luxury apartment in Ikoyi to the church, urging Christians in Rivers State to aggressively pray to God on the matter.

Speaking during an Easter Church Service at Saint Peter’s Anglican Church in Rumuepirikom, Governor Wike said that the church had a responsibility to pray that God would touch the Federal Government of Nigeria to return the money to the coffers of Rivers State, because, according to him, the money belonged to Rivers State Government.

“We need the prayer of the Church because there is nothing that prayer cannot do. Pray that God should touch the Government of Nigeria, so that they will return the money to us. What we are interested in is for the money to come back to us.”

The governor stated that contrary to the “false propaganda being peddled by the embattled Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, he has not declared war on the Federal Government, but the Rivers State Government was simply requesting the return of funds belonging to the state.”

Governor Wike continued: “I cannot declare war on the Federal Government. Anybody bringing Buhari’s name, should leave Buhari and face his own problems. The issue is who kept the money at the Ikoyi Residence. The money was kept there by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.”

He emphasized: “No amount of blackmail, no amount of distraction will stop us from getting our money,” alleging that between 70 and 80 per cent of the APC campaigns in 2015 were sponsored using funds sourced by the Rivers State Government under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation.

Speaking further, the Rivers State Governor said that the idea of the alleged selective war of corruption would not help development in the country and wondered why security intelligence allegedly worked on opponents of the Federal Government, but that when “glaring corruption issues pop up like the Ikoyi case, where Billions of Dollars belonging to Rivers State have been found, the war on corruption is suspended and diversionary tactics adopted.”

In his sermon, the Vicar of Saint Peter’s Anglican Church, Rumuepirikom, Venerable Israel Omosioni prayed God to grant the request of Rivers people for the Ikoyi billions to be returned. He said that with the execution of projects across the state by Governor Wike, additional funds would assist Governor Wike to achieve more for the people of the state.

Consequently the St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Rumuepirikom, resolved to start the prayers, which would be sustained untill the funds were returned.

Meanwhile, in several press statements issued last weekend, the former Governor of the state and Minister of Transport. Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Rivers Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as well as the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, had strongly denied Wike’s claims, dismissing them as figments of his imagination and a ploy to divert attention from his alleged bribery scandals.

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