Amaechi attracted no project to Rivers as minister — Wike

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Monday said his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, did not attract any meaningful project to the state as Minister of Transportation; describing his tenure as a total failure.

Wike said this while reacting to Amaechi’s comments that the Rivers State Government refused to give state burial to the late Chief Alabo Graham-Douglas that was laid to rest last weekend.

He used the occasion of the formal inauguration of the reconstructed former Rivbank Insurance building in Port Harcourt on Monday to lampoon the former transportation minister.

He said, “A man who failed in attracting projects to his state and exhibited poor leadership within his depleted party, the All Progressives Congress, should hide his face in shame and stop talking about Rivers politics.

“We have taken all your people. Nobody is in your party again. Why not manage and stay quiet because of your poor leadership?

“Tell the Rivers State people, as Minister of Transportation, what you did for your people. Seven good years, all you were interested in was doing business with CCECC, doing standard rail gauge and the other gauges until now, we have not seen any in Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.”

The governor boasted that while he was Minister of State for Education, he attracted the Faculty of Law to the University of Port Harcourt and established the Oil and Gas Polytechnic in Bonny.

Wike said he made grants available to the Kenule Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic in Bori and the Ignatius Ajuru University, Port Harcourt, in addition to renovating several secondary schools in the state.

The Rivers State governor said the state government stayed away from the burial activities because it was politicised and he did not want to be associated with such trivialities.

“Let me use this opportunity to say that I am very disappointed that Amaechi will still come to the state to talk about this government not giving late Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas a state burial.

“It is unfortunate. I asked him when Graham-Douglas was sick, where were you? This state government committed so much amount of money into making sure that Chief Alabo survived,” he said.

Wike also said that despite the minister’s closeness to the late Captain Elechi Amadi, he (Amaechi) failed to keep his words.