‘Indeed, the guilty are always afraid’, Rivers APC

It has come to the attention of the Rivers State Chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC, that the Governor of Rivers State, Barr. Nyesom Wike and his party, the PDP have been thrown into panic mode since the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari dropped the hint that corrupt Ministers and officials of the immediate past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan would be probed.

As part of the cauldron of confusion in which the governor and his party have been thrown into, the Spokesperson of the governor, Opunabo Inko-Tariah recently came out with what would pass for a litany of incoherent ironical lines which clearly typifies the quandary in which the governor and his party now find themselves.

Like the proverbial sinking man who is bent on dragging along anyone in sight, Wike babbled between name-callings of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and President Buhari to threats of resistance in an obvious display of disconcerted state of mind and disorientated thought process.

On one hand, the governor, through Mr. Inko-Tariah, claimed to support the fight against corruption and everything should be done to retrieve our stolen commonwealth but quickly turned around to recommend what the scope, span and colour of the probe should be. Not done, the governor threatened resistance should Mr. President not adopt his own [Wike’s] anti-corruption crusade template.

For a governor who set up a probe panel with a mandate to probe only the last 18 months of his predecessor’s administration to now turn around to insist that the President should extend his probe to cover the last 30 years says so much about the character and persona of Governor Nyesom Wike. One may ask, between the governor’s 18-month probe and that of the President which spans 4 whole years, which is a more selective probe? Is it that Governor Nyesom Wike thinks Rivers State is now a state populated by nit-wits?

It is perhaps necessary at this point to help Governor Wike remember what OBJ said of President Buhari when the latter headed the PTF. OBJ had this to say recently:

“When you were going to become the manager of PTF, we talked about it and when you finished and I took over, we looked into it.

“I haven’t said this publicly, I would say it publicly now. When we looked into it, there was really nothing amiss except that that organisation went from road building to mosquito net-buying and all
sorts of things.”

The governor finally settled on his most-priced self-appointed mission – that of deconstructing, degrading and witch-hunting of his former boss and tarring him to his heart’s desire. Wike claimed that the former governor was corrupt, citing certain projects which he, as Chief of Staff, knew the real facts about.

For example, say what you may about the Monorail Project, the APC would like to challenge Governor Wike to provide evidence of a cheaper monorail project [per mile] anywhere in the world.

As the leader of our party, the APC, we profoundly believe in the impeccable integrity of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, yesterday, today and tomorrow. No amount of campaign of calumny and caustic bitterness by the likes of Gov. Wike can change that.

Gov. Wike’s warning to the Department of State Security [DSS] over the arrest of Dame Gesila Khan, INEC REC for Rivers State is understandable to even the most naive observer. We believe that the humongous sum of N700m reportedly found in her account must be funds the Jonathan Presidency and Candidate Nyesom Wike paid out to the woman to buy the mandate of Rivers people in the last general elections. Sadly, they did not tutor her well enough on how to deal with such huge amount of money. You cannot have a perfect crime.

Finally, Gov. Wike’s lamentations are not as a result of the governor’s concern for former President Goodluck Jonathan; Wike is clearly weeping for himself because his indictment on the humongous
fraud that took place in the Federal Ministry of Education and Universal Basic Education Commission all under his watch as Minister of State and substantive Minister, clearly hang on his neck like the hangman’s noose waiting to snap.

Chris Finebone
State Publicity Secretary