Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Government has advised the Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, to stay away from Port Harcourt, if he feels the state is unsafe.
Reacting to a statement by the minister during a thanksgiving church service, in honour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, that Rivers State is unsafe, Commissioner for Information and Communications, Emma Okah, said Amaechi should show his anger by hosting his party activities, church programmes and birthday parties, etc, in Abuja, outside the state, since he said Rivers is unsafe.
“Normal people no longer take Amaechi seriously because he lives in bitterness. Evidence abound to show that the Rivers State Government and the security agencies are doing their best to secure life and property in Rivers State, and only a deluded or mischievous mind denies this fact,” Okah said.
READ ALSO: Saudi monarch in the eye of the storm
Condemning alleged reckless manner Amaechi talks, Okah said, in normal climes, a former governor and a serving minister qualifies to be a statesman, “but, the case of Amaechi is a harvest of shame as he maliciously discredits everything the Rivers State Government is doing to develop the state and provide security for the people.
“Amaechi needs to know that any failure of security under our democracy, where the governor has played his role, is an indictment on the Nigeria Police and the security agencies who are under the control of the Federal Government.
“Amaechi should ask the heads of security agencies he posts to the state why there are lapses, if any. Rivers State government will not join him in the journey to perdition, by condemning the hard working security agencies.
“Instead of Amaechi to empathise with those who sadly lost their loved ones, he was spitting on the graves of the deceased and mocking them, because he knows he is seeking political mileage with the blood of the innocent, and has not supported the state to fight crime since he became a minister,” he said.
Okah alleged that rather than allow security agencies to do their work unhindered, Amaechi has continued to politicise the security architecture to achieve only political ends since his stooge lost the governorship election in 2015.
“He (Amaechi) must explain to Nigerians why security challenges still exist in all states in the country. Are those governors also not doing enough or should that also not be the reason they and the president should lose elections?” Okah asked
READ ALSO: In search of political mentors (8): The outsider unsung political hero
Meanwhile, former Attorney General of Adamawa State and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Prof. Maxwell Gidado, has said Rivers State is lucky to have Governor Nyesom Wike, who he noted is committed to the rapid development of the state.
Gidado spoke during a state dinner organised in honour of the Nigerian Law School Class of 1984, at the Government House, Port Harcourt, after their delegates conference at the weekend.
He said: “In the next four or five years, Rivers State will be on a course of greater development.
I’m saying, with all air of sincerity, that when they took us round, it was as if one was driving through the streets of London.