Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi
• Rejection Of The Award Is A Huge Moral Relief For Wike, Says Rivers Govt
Minister of Transportation and a former governor of Rivers State, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, has described as “a poisoned chalice,” an award/honour planned to be bestowed on him by Wike, and therefore rejected it.
Amaechi, in a statement by his media aide, David Iyofor, said: “In the past couple of days, Amaechi has been inundated with calls and enquiries from journalists about a purported an award/honour to him from Wike.
“But as at today, Amaechi has not received any communication from Wike and/or Rivers State government in this respect.“Be that as it may, we want to state categorically that whatever Wike claims to be giving to Amaechi is a poisoned chalice that has been unequivocally rejected by the minister.”
According to him: “The purported award itself is a contradiction of monumental proportions, a contradiction that can only come from a warped and perverted mind.“From day one as governor, Wike has made it his sole, one-point agenda to attack, abuse, insult and falsely denigrate Amaechi, his immediate predecessor and erstwhile benefactor.
“Since he became governor, Wike spends most of his time making false allegations against Amaechi, as he attempts, albeit fruitlessly, to malign and destroy the outstandingly superb performance and legacy of Amaechi in Rivers State.
“So, what is the bases or criteria for Wike to give an award/honour to a man he has rashly attacked and called all sorts of unprintable names in the past two years? “What will Amaechi tell Rivers people when he goes to collect an award from that man who sits in Government House that is directly or indirectly responsible for the present deplorable state of sufferings, economic and infrastructural decay, violence, crime, insecurity, kidnappings and killings in the state?
“We will not relent to remind Wike and insist that he must go to court, like he vowed, to prove his frivolous claims that the over $43million Ikoyi money and luxury apartment (found by EFCC), belongs to Amaechi and were stolen from Rivers State by Amaechi or be ready to face the wrath of the law at the appropriate time.
“The only other alternative is for him to publicly apologise.”In a swift reaction, the state government yesterday said Amaechi rejection of the award is a huge moral relief for Wike's administration and the people of the state.
Commissioner for Information and Communications, Austin Tams-George, said the state government never set out to give any special award to Amaechi for a meritorious service, adding: “There is a category in the award structure for former governors of the state.
“As a former governor, Amaechi fell automatically in that category. The award was never meant as a validation of Amaechi's horrendous administration.” He alleged that the government was about to begin a prosecutorial process against Amaechi in multiple jurisdictions in Nigeria and abroad and no award would have stopped that process. "We must confess that as a government, we wrestled with the moral horror of giving any kind of award to a man… But it was an automatic category," said Tams-George.
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