The saga between the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike and his predecessor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, worsened on Tuesday with each of them trading blame. The Governor, who spoke in an interview with journalists in Abuja, said that Amaechi was going to the media to divert attention from the probe panel he set up.
He said in another interview with State
House correspondents shortly after a meeting President Muhammadu Buhari
had with state governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he said Amaechi
needed not to entertain any fear over the probe panel if he had not looted the people's fund
Amaechi, who spoke through his former
Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, accused the Governor of
stopping the Federal Government from refunding N108bn it owed the state.Justifying the probe panel he set up,
Wike said, “The essence of the judicial commission does not have to do
with a witch-hunt of anyone, but to understand things we could not have
understood.If he had worked with the transition
committee we set up, the committee would have asked one or two
questions. No transition committee was set up by the government - Amaechi’s administration.
Wike insisted a Lexus Jeep [bulletproof] seized from Semenitari belonged to the state government.He alleged that the commissioner
initially said the car was given to her, by her husband and later claimed
that it was a parting gift from government. According to Wike, there are no documents to back both claims by the former commissioner. He recall that Amaechi, during his
administration, set up many probe panels, adding that nobody said such
panels were aimed at witch-hunting those opposed to him.
The Governor faulted a claim that the Amaechi administration gave him a handover note.