1st June, 2015
The new Peoples Democratic Party government in Rivers State has accused former governor Rotimi Amaechi of stripping bare the State House in the capital of Port Harcourt.
Governor Nyesom Wike made the allegation weekend, stating it as reason he would not move into the State House too soon, preferring instead to operate from his home.
Today, Wike conducted some prominent PDP members round Government House, complex showing the how facilities from mattresses, pillow-cases, bullet proof doors, crested rugs, chairs, electric sockets etc were vandalised and looted by aides of Amaechi.
Similarly, the state chairman of the party Prince Felix Obuah, presented a more detailed accusation against Amaechi, describing the scale of looting as ‘shocking’, ’embarrassing’, ‘childish’ and ‘criminal’. Obuah urged the APC leadership and President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on Amaechi to return what has been taken away.
Amng the items the PDP claimed Amaechi looted from the State House were imported “furniture, (tables and chairs) Air Conditioners, window blinds, rugs, bullet proof doors, cars, electrical/electronic gadgets, saves, Jacuzzis, room facilities and other domestic utensils, including fridges, freezers, televisions, beds and beddings.”
Obuah claimed that the ‘massive looting’ of public facilities in the State, more of which is evident in the Government House, further exposed the greed, corrupt and unpatriotic disposition of former Governor Amaechi, which the PDP has over the years consistently complained about.
“The PDP sees no justification for former Gov. Amaechi to be that wicked as to treat the people and a State that have fed him all his life the way he did, saying it considers the monumental looting of the Government House by Amaechi as unwarranted and least expected of a public personality as he is, and that adding to the numerous reckless actions and misguided utterances that he chooses and employs as his leadership tools, this action has made him unfit and undeserving of any further public office, so he does not desecrate such office.
“It is therefore, our view as a responsible Party, considering the huge resources and inconveniencies that would cause the State to replace the looted items, in terms of fresh procurement or refurbishment of the broken items, to again urge President Buhari and other APC leaders to sanction the former Governor, ask him to return the loots and also charge him to apologize to Rivers people for the shameful act, which is responsible for the delay of Gov. Nyesom Wike to move into the Government House and the use of those public facilities by the new administration since after its inauguration on May 29.”
There was no response yet from the Amaechi camp over the allegations.