By Nwaorgu Faustinus
Chieftain
of the All Progressives Congress and erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of
the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze,
has expressed disgust over claims by Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, that
the Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, while as Rivers Governor, flew
and abandoned in Germany since 2012, an aircraft -Legacy 600, belonging to the
state, in very surreptitious circumstances and without a trace of any
documentation to that effect.
Describing the claim as terribly
discordant with available records and facts, Chief Eze said as Chief of Staff
to Amaechi, Gov. Wike is stocked with first-hand knowledge of every
decision and action taken during the pendency of that administration over
critical issues of public concern including the arrangement to fly the said
Legacy 600 aircraft to Germany, for refurbishment after the State acquired a
new air-plane which he now uses as Governor.
“The whole arrangement was made in
2011, before Amaechi sent his name to Jonathan for Ministerial appointment
which he got on July 14, 2011. So by that, he was still part of the
administration when the decision to send the Aircraft to Germany was taken”.
In a statement made available to
media houses in Port Harcourt, the party Chief recalled that in 2015, while
addressing a press conference in Government House, Port Harcourt a few months
after he was sworn in to succeed Amaechi, Gov. Wike said he was sending a
delegation to Germany to confirm the state of the said Legacy 600, - the
aircraft in contention and negotiate the possible path to return same to the
state.
The report which was widely
published in some local and national newspapers in 2015 had the following
excerpt from his statement -“We are sending somebody to Germany tomorrow. I got
security information that plane is parked somewhere in Germany. As I speak to
you, there was no report, no handover to say this is where it is. There is
another one parked at the Air Force Base. I heard it will take about two months
before it be fixed.”
Between 2015 when Gov. Wike sent
an agent to Germany and 2022, is about eight years and only a clueless Governor
like him, with a defective understanding of leadership and hollow sense of
reasoning will abandon a state asset in a foreign land for eight years only to
wake up one morning to apportion blame to a man so faultless.
It is even more embarrassing to
the sensibilities of the lettered Rivers public to hear the Governor mention
that €3million or about N1.5Bn have been expended on clearing the accumulated
parking fee for the number of years the air craft was in Germany and even more
millions of Euros have gone down the drain in servicing the engine ad general
overhaul of the Legacy-600.
One would have loved to see a
situation where the Governor puts up the aircraft for sale, in line with the
initial arrangement of the previous administration, to generate money and
channel same to some reasonable, fruitful ventures. Rather than that, the
Governor opted for a bizarre economic waste as usual.
It is important to note that
contrary to the claims of Gov. Wike, the Legacy 600 aircraft, its movement and
domicile in Germany are contained in the handover note of the Ministry of
Transport prepared at the end of the Chibuike Amaechi administration in 2015,
and this fact has earlier been buttressed by George Tolofari, who served as
Commissioner in that Ministry in the previous administration.
It is an amusing bit of foolery
for Gov. Wike to go the length of dragging the Transportation Minister,
Chibuike Amaechi, into the messy waters of calumny with very discordant
narratives in a bid to evade responsibility for the huge waste to which he has
committed the state.
What more could be more idiotic
and senseless than a Governor who freely engages in fanfare of squander-mania,
this time, to the extent of burning millions of Euros on a venture that
promises no yield for the state and her people especially, at a time when the
complaint of paucity of funds is his daily anthem and biggest selling point for
his abysmal performance and colossal failure to allow democratic dividends
trickle down to the people.
Eze counseled the Governor to
desist from dragging the Transportation Minister into trivial issues, stressing
that the former Rivers Governor and other members of the Muhammadu Buhari team
are preoccupied with very sensitive national engagements geared towards placing
the country on the path of progress and complementing ongoing efforts at
lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
The party chieftain also
discredited the efforts of two of Wike’s allies who tried so hard but failed to
force the Wike lies to stick, forcing the falsehood to crumble like poor paint
on a wet wall.
The security helicopter bought by
the Amaechi administration was stopped from flying and doing its job for very
frivolously annoying reasons and till this day, many still believe that the
chance lost to deploy that asset is reason the state lost the opportunity to
totally win the war against violence which returned in full scale when Wike
took over and freed the dogs of vandals and integrated them into his work
plan.
Eze expressed concern over Gov.
Wike’s habitual strife towards the Transportation Minister especially, each
time Nigerians plan to honor him in recognition of his efforts and sacrifices
towards the success of the Buhari/APC administration and the overall
development of the country.
“Any time Amaechi is to receive
one accolade or the other from Nigerians, the Wike administration would always
cook up one frivolous issue to discredit the Minister and poison the minds of
the people and scare them away”.
Chief Eze called on Nigerians to
be wary of the antics of Gov. Wike, whose docile posture represents a clear
departure from the norms of leadership and democratic tenets in a progressive
clime.
The APC kingpin stated that both
Paulinus Nsirim and Tony Okocha’s injured defences of the Wike lies failed to
address real issues such as; whether or not Wike was Chief of Staff when the
decision to take the aircraft to Germany was taken in 2012.
Whether or not Wike addressed the
press in 2015 where he said he had found the aircraft was in Germany.
Whether or not the latest
discovery - Legacy 600 and the first aircraft discovered in 2015 are one
and the same.
Eze described as clueless, claims
by an ex-Amaechi aide, Tony Okocha, the man who replaced Wike as Chief of
Staff, Government House that the Commissioner of Transport had no right to do
hand over note on the air stocks.
He queried whether applying to
manage the planes in Govt House removes them from being property of Ministry of
Transport.
It is saddening to learn that Wike
who was part of the FG caucus that grounded the Rivers planes both at home and
abroad is now making ‘discovery’ of them, even when FAAN had in 2013 given
reasons why it grounded the planes and stopped the ones abroad from flying
in.
Eze recalled that Gov. Wike helped
the Jonathan administration to divert Rivers oil wells to Bayelsa State and
other states, transferred the disputed money kept in an escrow account to
Bayelsa, grounded the state planes, stoped drawdown of loans to Rivers and
frustrated the refund of over N100Bn spent on federal projects, etc, and thus
should desist from posing as a messiah, fighting for today what he fought
against yesterday.
Eze, however, suggested that the
aircraft be sold to raise fund to tackle critical issues of public concerns
such as the huge debts owed pensioners, job creation, youth empowerment,
agricultural development, investment in education and health, all of which have
received very little or no attention from the current administration under Gov.
Wike and the People’s Democratic Party.
Finally Eze commended Chief
Emmanuel Chindah, erstwhile Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon. George Tolofari,
fmr Commissioner for Transportation, Barr. Ezemonye Ezekiel Amadi, former
Commissioner for Lands and all the stakeholders who ensured that the lies of
Governor Nyesom Wike and some of his misguided allies were thrown to the
dustbin where it rightly belongs. I pray that we all work like this in future
to ensure that Gov Wike stops his motor park type of administration politics in
Rivers State.
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