Goodluck Jonathan, former Nigerian President.

The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has commended immediate past President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, for admitting that he imposed Nyesom Wike as Governor of Rivers State. While recently commissioning the Nkpogu Bridge in Port Harcourt, Jonathan had said: “I don’t regret making Wike a governor.”

According to Rivers APC in a statement issued on Tuesday and signed by the State Chairman, Chief (Dr.) Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, “This statement confirms that Dr. Jonathan alone and not Rivers people made Wike a governor. This statement by Dr Jonathan affirms our earlier stand that Rivers people never voted Wike into power.”

Lamenting the implication of Wike’s imposition, Rivers APC said: “It is based on this truism that Wike can now recoat and repaint projects initiated and executed by the administration of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and present them for commissioning as his own projects. It is this fact that he was never voted in by the people of Rivers State that made him to continue to embark upon projects that are inimical to the growth and progress of Rivers State and her people. It is based on this fact that Rivers State under Wike is now renamed Rivers of Blood as political killings continue unabated in the once-peaceful state. It is based on this fact that the only known agenda of Wike and his cohorts is how to do the impossible of decimating, destroying and undoing one of the brightest stars from Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Amaechi, and make him irrelevant in the politics of Nigeria. It is because the people of Rivers State never voted for him in the 2015 general elections that made him to ensure that Rivers’ money is wasted on profitless ventures and sponsoring of PDP Conventions.” The party, however, warned that never again will one man sit somewhere whether in Abuja or anywhere else and decide for Rivers people who will be their governor.

It also commended Jonathan for admitting that it was Amaechi who made Wike somebody politically. It referred to Jonathan’s words during the commissioning ceremony: “Even though Wike was Chief of Staff Government House, Port Harcourt, at the time I was Vice President, I didn’t know him personally until his name was forwarded to me by the then Governor of Rivers State, Amaechi, when I became President for ministerial appointment. Out of persuasion, he became Minister…I have no regret for making him governor.”

Rivers APC said: “This fact once again exposes Wike as a nobody until Amaechi decided to nominate him to Dr Jonathan as a Minister. Today, Wike has become a disaster and we are paying for this unfortunate appointment. Today, he is after the Amaechi that made him politically, thereby making himself a master betrayer less than Judas Iscariot. We thank Dr Jonathan for telling the world that in his entire life, he never knew or met Wike until Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi brought him to him.”

The party further described the recent outbursts by Governor Wike that Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is recruiting militants at the auspices of Hon. Ojukaye Flag Amachree and Ambassador Orji Ngofa to cause restiveness in Rivers State as that of a desperate, confused mind afraid of what awaits him after 2019. Though we know that this is another cheap and bogus lie embellished to blackmail Amaechi, Flag Amachree and Orji Ngofa, let us point out knowing the type of politics that Wike plays this maybe a ploy by Wike to embark upon another massive killing of APC members and innocent Rivers State people. We therefore urge the relevant security agencies to monitor Wike and his agents of destruction accordingly and avoid further killing of Rivets State people. The world is fully aware that Rivers State under Wike has become Rivers of blood where human lives are treated less than that of animals.

Rivers APC aligned itself also with the historical statement credited to Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa – the home State of former President Jonathan – that his six years in Aso Rock was a waste for the Ijaw Nation. The party declared that Jonathan’s Presidency was similarly a total disaster for the Rivers State and her people for the following reasons:

1. Jonathan failed to muster the courage and political will in a PDP-controlled National Assembly to see to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in the over six years of his administration to demonstrate his hatred for the Niger Delta region, knowing that communities in Rivers State will benefit from the bill.

2. The East/West Road, especially Eleme-Onne axis in Rivers State, was abandoned and became a nightmare to travellers.

3. He refused to refund to the State Government over 110 billion naira used in the dualisation of Ikwerre-Owerri Road approved by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and other Federal Roads in the State executed by the State to ease the sufferings of the people of Rivers State.

4. He wickedly stopped the Train 7 at NLNG Bonny, resulting in the loss of jobs to Rivers people and revenue to the State Government.

5. Refused to implement the UNEP Report on the clean-up of Ogoni land despite all the pleas by our people and the International Community – just to punish the Ogonis and Rivers State irrespective of their overwhelming support for him during the 2011 elections.

6. Jonathan duly acknowledged that he has no project to point as was executed by his administration for the six years he was Abuja as President.

7. Most wickedly, he ceded oil wells belonging to Rivers to Bayelsa and Abia states to ensure that the revenue accruing to the State is reduced to nothing.

8. Abandoned construction of the Port Harcourt International Airport after completing other airports started at the same time with it. The airport was described as the worst sixth Airports in the world during Jonathan’s administration.

9. Posting and encouraging the excesses of the tyrannical Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu during his inglorious days in the State.

10. Supporting every imaginable act of impunity in the State, including the plot by five State Assembly members to impeach the Speaker in a House of 31 members.

11. Seizing and grounding the planes of the State for no just cause.

12. Harassing and intimidating the duly elected Governor of Rivers State then for no just cause and even supporting the splitting of the Governors’ Forum into two just to ensure that former Governor Amaechi, who was duly elected by his colleagues, did not have an easy reign as the Chairman of the Forum.

Concluding, the party said: “Though what Rivers State suffered in the hands of Jonathan is so enormous we hand over his case and that of Wike to God to handle.”