THISDAY

Wike, Abe Conspiring to Assasinate My Character, Alleges Amaechi

Face judgment of the people, leave Wike alone, says Rivers Govt

- Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt

Minister of Transporta­tion and Director-General of President Buhari 2019 Campaign Organisati­on, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, has alleged that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and the All Progressiv­es Congress (APC) Senator, representi­ng Rivers South-east in the Senate, Magnus Abe, were conniving and conspiring to disparage and defame him.

Amaechi, who is the immediate past governor of Rivers State and the leader of the APC in Rivers State and the South-south also alleged that the duo of Abe and Wike were plotting to use his former cabinet members to tell fake, concocted and distorted stories to the media that were meant to “denigrate him, impugn his unblemishe­d integrity and paint a very terrible image of him to members of the public.”

Reacting, Rivers State Government asked Amaechi to leave Wike alone and face the judgment of the people.

In a statement released by his Media Office in Port Harcourt yesterday, Amaechi alleged the plot to defame him was already far-gone and that persons were being coached on what to say and how to say it.

The statement read: “I am aware that two former commission­ers who served in the State Executive Council when I was governor have been procured by Wike and Abe, jointly and collaborat­ively, to carry out this hatchet job of ‘hack Amaechi down’ campaign. The plan is to throw as much dirt at me as possible and rubbish my image.

“While one is being coached in Rivers State Government House of what to say to the press and how to say it, to do maximum damage; the other one is busy distorting, concocting and fabricatin­g fake screenshot­s, text messages, documents and all sorts in Senator Abe’s Freedom House campaign office in Port Harcourt; that they intend to release to the media to tarnish my image.

“I want to alert the media and members of the public of the smear plot by these two political collaborat­ors (Wike and Abe), to unjustly discredit and smear me for their selfish political reasons.”

Amaechi stated that he would not be distracted by any “cheap, fake smear campaign of calumny” against him, while urging Rivers people to pay no heed to the desperate attention-seeking duo of Wike and Abe and all of their fabricated lies, but focus on the goal of ensuring that Rivers State got a better leader that would turn around the fortune of the state and its people for good, come 2019.

He insisted that no amount of sabotage and fake stories would deter him and all genuine APC members, supporters and Rivers people from changing and voting out the inept government in Rivers State, next year.

Reacting on behalf of Wike, the State Commission­er for Informatio­n

and Communicat­ions, Emma Okah, said Amaechi was only blaming others for the problems he created for himself in the APC.

Okah said Amaechi was haunted by his ugly actions and should face the judgment of the people instead of deluding himself that Wike was after him.

He said, “That assertion is

not only false but childish and emanating from a demented brain infected by diseased imaginatio­n and suffering a distorted vision of reality.”

He said Wike had no time to join issues with “paper tigers and base politician­s who cannot win elections in their wards and local government­s without the help of

security agencies.”

He added: “Senator Abe is an adult and a distinguis­hed member of the National Assembly who does not need any collaborat­ion to resist the wrong visited upon him by the former governor of Rivers State by denying him right to political aspiration.

“Every Nigerian knows the love

lost between Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and the Transport Minister and since 2013, the latter has used every opportunit­y to insult the governor of Rivers State and his government and he sees nothing wrong with that. Why is the Transport Minister now afraid of receiving a little of the same meal he has served others?”

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