Amaechi Destroyed Rivers Before Leaving Office In 2015 – Wike

The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has accused the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, of destroying the state before leaving office in 2015.

Wike claimed that his predecessor converted some of the properties belonging to the state to his personal use and sold some other valuable assets to his cronies.

Naija News reports the Rivers State Governor made the submission on Tuesday during a stakeholder meeting at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

The governor alleged that Amaechi refused to hand over to him in 2015 because of his decision to cover some of the atrocities allegedly committed by his government.

Wike particularly said that his government has recovered the Legacy 600 jet belonging to the state which was abandoned in Munich, Germany, but could not find the Dash 8 propeller aircraft also bought the Peter Odili administration.

He said the last time anyone heard of the Dash 8 plane was when Amaechi vowed not to sell the aircraft to Chief Victor Odili, who offered to purchase it at the cost of $5million.

He said: “Chief Victor Odili offered to buy Dash 8 at $5 million. In the Executive Council, the governor (Amaechi) said no, that he had a better offer and the better offer ($6million) is from Cross River state when Liyel Imoke was the governor of the State and that he wanted to use it for the Obudu Ranch.

“Out of that $6 million, Liyel had paid N100m as a deposit. Up till now, where is the balance? Where is our Dash 8? If they sold it to Cross River state, where is the balance? The asset that ought to be documented and handed over to who is coming in.”

The governor said he travelled to Germany recently in the company of some leaders of the state to recover the state-owned Legacy 600 abandoned there since 2012 by the Amaechi-led government.

According to him, the fact that the Amaechi-led administration refused to set up a transition committee to properly hand over to him in 2015 was a pointer that they desperately wanted to convert state assets and property for personal use.

Wike said while Amaechi was governor he wrote a letter in July 2011 to the State House of Assembly seeking approval to trade on the abandoned aircraft in Germany to enable him to buy the Bombardier Global Express.

But he said Amaechi bought the new aircraft but never traded on the Legacy 600 aircraft, adding that the minister did everything possible to impose his successor that would cover up his crimes.

He said: “The whole essence of why they took the plane to Germany was because the former governor felt that he was going to install a governor in 2015.

“If Dakuku (Peterside) had become governor, that was the end of the plane. That was just the whole essence because he felt Dakuku must be governor and to the glory of God he did not become…that is why the plane is coming back latest the end of March this year.”