Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State Governor, has come hard on his immediate predecessor and former minister of transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi over a comment made by the later during an interview on Nigerian Television Authority, NTA.
The Minister, while answering questions on NTA live on Tuesday night, explained that the new rail line could not be extended to Rivers State due to the level of insecurity in the state.
But Wike, during a second term inauguration banquet at the Government House Port Harcourt on Wednesday night, describe the comment by Amaechi as unfortunate.
According to Wike: “Amaechi claimed on NTA Tuesday live that he did not bring the railway to Rivers State because of insecurity, what about Kaduna and Daura with very high level of insecurity, yet they took railway there.
“Just this week, the President met with the governors of 19 northern states and they discussed on how to stem the tide of insecurity in the region. Yet they were not denied projects.
“For how long will Amaechi continue to de-market Rivers State. Was it insecurity that made him not to give the President 25per cent during the last elections? You claim Rivers State is insecure, but you came to the state to hold your birthday. Every Rivers indigene owes it a duty to protect the state”.
He said contrary to the false propaganda about insecurity, Rivers State has continued to grow her internally generated Revenue since 2015.
“When I came on board as Governor in 2015, we met an Internally Generated Revenue of N4.5billion monthly. But now, it has grown to N8-9billion monthly. If the state is not safe, our Internally Generated Revenue will not be on the increase.
“Let nobody de-market Rivers State. This ugly politics will not work. We have not benefited anything from the APC Federal Government since 2015. They are refunding money for Federal projects, but they delisted Rivers State. But I will not bow to anyone, I will only continue to respect constituted authority “, he said.
