By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State have lambasted the All Progressives Congress for accusing Governor Nyesom Wike of evicting occupants of some state government-owned buildings and reallocating same to individuals they described as his cronies.
They also blasted the Rivers APC for insinuating that the Rivers governor is using fronted cronies to acquire landed properties.
In a chat with our correspondent on Sunday, the PDP members maintained that the APC, as an opposition party, lacks the moral justification to either accuse or probe Governor Wike, arguing that the immediate past administration under Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the APC leader in RIvers State, wasted more government properties, some of which they said Governor Wike is either trying to recover or has already recovered such as the Legacy 600 Aircraft.
A PDP leader in one of the wards in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, who chose not to mention his name, described former APC governorship candidate, Dakuku Peterside and Rivers APC spokesman Chris Finebone’s statements against Governor Wike as baseless and lacking in merit.
“They have no shame, because if they have shame, they will not be talking against Governor Wike. Even if others talk against him, it should not be the APC because if they remember what Amaechi their oga did when he was the governor of the state, how he sold government properties, then they will know that they don’t have right to talk against Governor Wike.
“Have they forgotten what Amaechi did to Olympia hotel? This Dakuku that is talking now, does he not know? Was he not involved? What of the ones they wasted, like Mother and Child hospital and monorail that they abandoned?”
The PDP ward leader regretted that the APC chieftains have forgotten so soon how they crippled the Rivers State economy when they were in power, which he claimed would have made things difficult for Governor WIke when he resumed office in 2015 were it not for his strength of character and determination to succeed.
“Everybody in this Rivers State saw how Amaechi crippled this state before leaving office. Nothing was working. The judiciary was locked. The courts were locked. Judiciary workers were dying of hunger. Civil servants the same thing. State Secretariat almost deserted.
Projects abandoned. So what are they saying? Was it not because of the projects they abandoned that Governor is borrowing money to repair? They looted all the money and still abandoned projects. Governor Wike had to borrow money to complete all those roads they abandoned. Now, he wants to complete the Kelsey Harrison Hospital that they abandoned. And they have the guts to talk against Governor Wike. It’s because they don’t have shame,” he said.
Also speaking, another PDP member from the same ward challenged the Rivers APC to mention the landed properties they claimed Governor Wike acquired as claimed by their spokesman, Senibo Chris Finebone three days ago. He said the allegation was a product of envy.
“Chris Finebone and his APC have no facts. They said Governor Wike is buying government land. If they have their facts to prove it, let them mention the lands and the people they say governor used to buy them. What are they waiting for? They should have mentioned them immediately if they’re sure of what they’re saying.
“They’re just jealous of Governor Wike because he succeeded where they failed. What they couldn’t do when they had all the money, Governor Wike is doing with the little funds he has. They suppose to hide their faces in shame,” he said.
In challenging the Rivers APC to mention the landed properties they claimed Governor Wike bought, the PDP members re-echoed a similar charge given to the APC publicity secretary, Chris Finebone, by the office of the Special Assistant to the commissioner for information and communications on media.
Reacting to statements made by the Rivers APC spokesman, Chris Finebone on Thursday, Mr Amieyeofori Ibim, S.A. Media to the Commissioner for Information and Communications, challenged Finebone to publish the names of those he claimed were evicted from the government property he alleged were reallocated to Governor Wike’s cronies.
In a statement entitled ‘CHRIS FINEBONE’S UNEDIFYING ADVOCACY,’
Amieyeofori Ibim notes: “Our attention has been drawn to a write-up by Senibo Chris Finebone titled: “GOV WIKE CONFESSES TO GRABBING GOVT BUILDINGS AND GIFTING SAME TO HIS CRONIES, SAYS RIVERS APC” which is a rejoinder to our properly articulated response, dismissing Dr. Dakuku Peterside’s feeble attempt to muckrake spurious and unfounded irrelevancies in the commendable effort of the Rivers State Government to recover its own properties and upgrade them to befitting habitable standards.”
The statement further reads:
“We are indeed quite saddened by the fact that Senibo Finebone, has in recent times sunk into the murky primordial cesspool of verbal rambling and rigmarole, ostensibly to maintain a reputational ‘presence’ and sustain an unnecessary relevance in the political space.
“While we sympathize with his figurative plight in the unenviable task of this new and unedifying advocacy, we are even more amused with his latest indulgence to hold brief for the hapless Dakuku Peterside, ‘in the confusion and frenzy’ to support a simplistic allegation, challenging the constitutionally engrained and inalienable authority of a properly constituted State Government, to recover and develop its own properties, where and how it seems legitimately appropriate.
“One would have expected that Senibo Finebone would have been a little bit more guarded and judicious in dealing with the functional and operational semantics in his application and deployment of the phrase, “grabbing government buildings and gifting same ….”; a matter over which we went to great lengths to address and clarify for Dakuku Peterside’s pedestrian understanding.”
Amieyeofori expressed sympathy over what he suspected could be the APC spokesman’s inability to grasp the scope of a legitimate government’s constitutional authority to revoke its property for proper utilization that will benefit the people.
“Once again and for the avoidance of doubt, we declare that the matter is crystal clear and the summary of it is that Finebone either does not understand the art of governance or is completely ignorant of the constitutional authority that government has right to revoke properties in public interest…And by the way, we take very strong exception to this very primitive, divisive, clannish, discriminatory and sectional mindset which the APC is surreptitiously but with acrimonious intent, trying to sow amongst our people, by categorizing as “cronies” and casting aspersion on distinguished Rivers people who provided sufficient evidence of their capacity and capabilities, to drive the urban renewal initiative of the state government to be beneficiaries of reallocation of Government properties.
“To now describe deserving Rivers people who were reallocated properties in recognition of their capacity to deliver on the urban renewal programme of the state government, as “cronies” of the Governor, is not only churlish and in bad faith, but clearly reflects the divisive nature of the APC which has already pervaded their structure and permeated into the mindset of the factionalized party. We do not need this kind of bitter, divide and rule mentality in Rivers State.”
The statement adds: “Finally, we challenge Finebone and his ilk to provide evidence of all those they feel have been unjustly evicted.”
