$43m Saga: Resign Now, Leave IGP Alone, Bear the Consequences of Your Misdeeds – APC Tells Wike

The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has demanded the immediate resignation of the State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, for constituting himself a nuisance and for belittling the high office that he occupies.

The party made the demand in a statement issued on Friday in Port Harcourt, in which it berated Wike for failing to keep his vow to sue the Federal Government if it failed to return the $43m found in a luxury apartment in Ikoyi Lagos to the Rivers State Government within one week. Wike had claimed that the money belonged to the Rivers State Government and was part of the funds allegedly looted by his immediate past predecessor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the incumbent Federal Minister of Transportation.

Rivers APC said in the statement signed by the State Chairman, Chief (Dr.) Davies Ibiamu Ikanya: “It is now over two weeks since Governor Wike issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to return the money to the Rivers State Government or be sued accordingly. Governor Wike had claimed that he has records, documents and facts to prove that the contentious $43m was kept by Amaechi. Apart from Rt. Hon. Amaechi vehemently denying the accusation as one from the pit of hell; it is on record that Mr. Abayomi Oke, the suspended DG of the National Intelligence Agency, has claimed ownership of the money, thereby exonerating Amaechi.

“Wike’s failure to sue the Federal Government as he vowed to do is the height of his shameful theatrics and repulsive actions that have brought shame and public odium to Rivers State and her people. We, therefore, demand without equivocation, the immediate resignation of Wike as the Governor so as to save the good people of Rivers State further embarrassment.”

The party said it knew from the very beginning that Wike is an alarmist whose single agenda since he assumed office as the Governor of Rivers State is to destroy Amaechi by any means.

Assessing Wike’s stewardship, the party lamented: “Here is somebody whose tenure as Governor has brought untold hardship to our people! Worst of all is the uncountable number of Rivers people who have been killed and are still being killed in order to sustain the evil administration of Wike in Rivers State. He has put the account of the State in the red through barefaced looting and the borrowing of over N100 billion from banks, without investing it in any tangible projects but using it to bribe judges and sponsoring worthless PDP Conventions without paying salaries of our civil servants and pensioners. What is more, Wike has abandoned our children on scholarship in foreign schools, stopped the free education scheme initiated by the government of Amaechi and committed sundry other atrocities that make him unworthy to be addressed as the Governor of any State in any part of this world.

“Wike, for reasons best known to him, did all he could to stop the nomination and screening of Amaechi as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has threatened both Amaechi and his followers and is now threatening President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration. Such a character surely does not qualify to be a Local Government Chairman, not to talk of being a Governor of a State like Rivers, which he has turned to Rivers of Blood.”

Rivers APC predicted that Wike’s needless fight against Amaechi, who made him politically, will eventually consume him.

According to the party, “Psalm 83, Isaiah 63 and Psalm 10 of the Holy Bible will go a long way to show Wike and his ilk that their fight against Amaechi is a fight against God and God who has protected him this far he will surely consume each one of them. In this regard, we wish to counsel him to leave the Inspector General of Police (IGP) alone as he is not a bloodthirsty fellow. Wike, from all indications, is being pursued by the ghosts of those innocent Rivers State people killed in order to install and sustain him in office.

“Finally, we will urge him to emulate his Ekiti counterpart, Governor Ayo Fayose, by visiting the prisons and to advocate the improvement of conditions there as the prison yard awaits him in the future.”