The Rivers Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is alarmed at the startling revelations arising from the white paper on the Justice George Omereji Commission of Inquiry into some activities of the immediate past administration of Mr Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.
The white paper which was released to the public on Friday, 9th October, 2015 found former Governor Amaechi, some key members of his administration, including some Local government Chairmen, some Permanent Secretaries as well as ex-Military Administrator of Rivers State, Anthony Ukpo among others culpable in the misappropriation of funds to the tune of over N97 billion.
The PDP is saddened that never in the history of Rivers State has the State been so treated to such mindless thievery by a select group of individuals.
Shocking and mind blowing as these disclosure appear, we make bold to state that it has finally vindicated our position when we insisted that the administration of former Governor Amaechi had been characterized by looting of the commonwealth of Rivers people.
It is our view that the regime of former Governor Amaechi stretched its thievery too far. Or how can one rationalize for instance, the renting of Orosi House which since 2007 had been gutted by fire but was rented in 2012 at a whopping amount of over N300 million. The property which the Amaechi government criminally claimed it rented is still uninhabitable till now.
It is on record that some of these deals in which Amaechi and his friends were indicted for, notably the monorail project, the sale of the various gas turbines, Hotel Olympia, Karibi White Specialist Hospital and the Agric Loan Scheme were the same transactions the PDP severally kicked against but were vilified for constructively criticizing Amaechi’s government and tagged ‘political enemies’.
It is shameful that the former Governor and his cohorts who were given ample opportunity to appear before the Commission to defend themselves of all the allegations, rather chose to ignore the invitations and took to the media to unleash lies and senseless propaganda.
These senseless propaganda, unfortunately have not and would not remove from them the toga of looters of the treasury.
Our advice to all those indicted by the Commission of Inquiry, including former Governor Amaechi as well as his All Progressives Congress (APC) is to quit shedding crocodile tears, apologize to Rivers people and return the loot.
While the PDP applaud the courage and sagacity of the revered Justice George Omereji whose Commission of Inquiry unearthed the shady and fraudulent transactions of the Amaechi’s regime, we call on Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike to ensure that all those indicted by the Commission are immediately prosecuted and all looted monies refunded.
Jerry Needam
Special Adviser On Media And Publicity To The State Chairman Of The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP
Sunday October 11, 2015
