Wike Vs Amaechi: “Confession of Integrity Group Boss should not be trusted”

Fierce reactions are now trailing the shocking confessional statement made by the Coordinator of Integrity Group in Rivers State, Mr. Livingstone Wechie, in which he announced on a live television programme, Monday, that all the documents his group used in accusing former Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of corruption in 2015 were allegedly forged by Governor Nyesom Wike.

Mr. Wechie, had also in the programme alleged that his campaigns against the former state governor, now the Minister of Transportation, were manipulated by the Rivers State government and were all fabrication.
An aide to Governor Nyesom Wike and special Adviser to the governor on Inter-party Affairs, Mr. Chris Itamulola, in his reaction, said that Livingstone Wechie and his group lacked integrity and should not be trusted.

Mr. Itamuno said: “The government of Rivers state would not allow itself to be distracted by any means whatsoever. What is imperative is the fact that Amaechi had been indicted by a panel of inquiry set up by the Rivers state government under Hon. Justice Omereji of the High Court.

“Amaechi sold assets of Rivers state without accountability and up till today had not given one single account regarding his stewardship for eight years. And what we need to do is to patiently await the outcome of the Supreme Court of Justice audit. What is important for Rivers people is to appreciate the fact that no matter the measure of propaganda put up by the immediate past governor, what is true is true.”

The People Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers state has also been speaking following the statement credited to Livingstone Wechie. The PDP called on the Senate to investigate Mr. Livingstone Wechie for openly admitting to lying on oath that documents tendered before the Senate were politically fabricated.

The Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state, Mr. Samuel Nwanosike, while reacting to the statement by Livingstone Wechie, urged the Senate to immediately order his arrest.

The PDP Publicity Secretary said: “This same Livingstone Wechie, swore to an oath when he appeared in the Senate Committee, room 180, and boldly told the committee that he was not sponsored by anybody, that every report he was presenting before them were his personal investigation alongside him and his colleagues in the Integrity Group.

“I am calling, as a matter of urgency, on the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which Livingstone came before their committee, swore to an oath before Nigerians that the documents he was presenting to them were his personal investigation devoid of any influence from anybody, that nobody sponsored him. It means that Livingstone Wechie lied on oath. The law on lying on oath is clear about what will happen to a man that lies on
oath. I think that the Senate should, as a matter of urgency, bring Livingstone to Justice,” he stated.

Mr. Nwanosike said that the Rivers state government was yet to go to court to implement the white paper on Justice Omereji’s panel which indicted former Governor Amaechi on the sale of Rivers state valued assets.

He said: “And we begin to wonder. Is it that Livingstone does not know that Amaechi has challenged the setting up of that committee that produced the white paper at the court of first instance, and lost? He went to court of Appeal, he lost. Amaechi has gone to the Supreme Court. Until Supreme Court decides on that matter, no reasonable government would want to go to court to enforce that white paper because whatever decision the Supreme Court takes would affect whatever would be the outcome of the white paper.

“Wike is a lawyer, a sound lawyer indeed who has said that he would wait for the Supreme Court to decide on the legitimacy of that committee that produced that white paper because the white paper is nothing if the committee that produced it, ab initio, comes into question under the judgement of the Supreme Court.

Livingstone Wechie has been paid to launder the image of the man he claimed to have destroyed,” the PDP Publicity Secretary said.

In what it termed a preliminary reaction to Wechie’s confession, the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state maintained that every lie had an expiry date.

In a press statement issued by the Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Chris Finebone, the party said: “All the lies and falsehood perpetrated against Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the APC by Governor Nyesom Wike and the PDP expired with ignominy.

“No better vessel would have conveyed the Wike and PDP confessional statement of shame than Livingstone Wechie himself, having been one of the arrowheads of Wike and PDP on their self-appointed mission to destroy the impeccable image and records of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Honourable Minister of Transportation. But to God be all the glory and adoration that the chicken came home to roost much earlier than later,” the statement read.

The party said that the confession of Livingstone Wechie could only be an act of God which should serve as a great lesson to those who preoccupy themselves with plotting evil against someone like Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who conducted his private and public life devoid of corruption and opulence. “Of course, such plots will always come to an inglorious ruin as demonstrated by Wechie,” the party said.

In his confessional statement, Mr. Livingstone Wechie had announced that “the story published by the press secretary to the PDP state chairman where he said that Amaechi had bank accounts in the United States of America, monies running into millions of naira, we thought was all correct.

He said that no link to that publication was seen and there was no Christine Amampour of CNN report as claimed in the publication. “All that was the propaganda that was flying then and we, thinking that coming from a state government, these reports are true. As a matter of fact, I personally volunteered to stand as witness to the PDP Chairman and three others who were accused by Rotimi Amaechi who was accused to the tune of N70million value of libel suit.”

Livingstone Wehie also said all the documents he presented in 2015 were all lies and fabricated to rubbish Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.

“Everything we told Nigerians was reliance on the documents that the state government furnished us with which we have come to realize were all forged documents and politically fabricated which is the basis upon which they have also refused to prosecute the former governor because they know that those documents would be challenged in court.

Recently former Governor Rotimi Amaechi had gone to court against the Integrity Group. The former governor is seeking a whooping sum of N500million as compensation over what he said was a smear of his image by Livingstone Wechie.