The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, says no person will succeed in becoming the next governor of the state if the intention is to make the state a personal estate.
Wike made the declaration at a thanksgiving service on Sunday at Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Port Harcourt to celebrate the victory secured at the Supreme Court in the oil well dispute between the state and Imo State.
He said the All Progressives Congress governorship aspirant, Tonye Cole, would have to first answer to what had happened to the $50 million his firm allegedly received from the state government during the administration of his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi.
The state chapter of the APC had however described Wike’s claim as mere blackmail.
The governor said, “He (Cole) must account for the $50 million they took from our account. Whoever knows him should tell him. $50 million was taken from Rivers State Access Bank account and taken to Sahara Energy account. And I asked them ‘what is the job you people did for Rivers State? Can I see the contract paper? Did you people loan us money?’”
He added, “You think you can sell this state. The former governor think that he can bring his business partner, after you have sold all our gas turbines, Olympia Hotel, and collected our $50million cash.
“People think we will sit here and you will sell our state. Nobody can sell this state. Nobody can make this state his personal estate. A governor must be somebody who wants to develop this state, not somebody who wants to put the state in his pocket,” he added.
Wike described as a waste of time the 48 hours ultimatum issued by the Ijaw National Congress over the arrest of Farah Dagogo, who is standing trial on a two-count charge of conspiracy to felony and cultism.
The right thing for them to do, the governor said, would have been to come to government to find out crux of the issues.
According to Wike, Dagogo would have lived within the bounds of the amnesty offered him by the Federal Government instead of returning to acts that threatened the peaceful conduct of the Peoples Democratic Party’s screening.
But reacting to the allegation, the state APC spokesman, Chris Finebone, described it as blackmail, saying neither Cole nor Amaechi has any case to answer with respect to state properties.
“Governor Wike is simply being clever by half. He knows Tonye Cole has no issues neither does former governor Amaechi concerning any sale of govt properties.
“It’s all cheap political blackmail by some individuals. Wike is battling low self esteem. Nothing more,” Finebone said.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Lawal, media aide to Dagogo said on Sunday night that Wike’s comments in church showed that he is plotting trump up charges against the federal lawmaker even in the house of God.
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