Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Sunday, traded words over the security situation in Rivers.
Wike and Amaechi both disagreed on the challenges of insecurity the state is battling with.
Naija News understands that Amaechi, while speaking in Port Harcourt at an event to welcome two former commissioners in the government of Wike and some others who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) blamed the current Governor for the state of insecurity in the state.
He also accused Wike of using state funds to acquire personal properties and wasting state resources on frivolities.
Amaechi said, “Rivers State is in danger, completely. A state where properties are collected and somebody is busy building everywhere and nobody is talking.
“When I was governor, God knows, I did my best. I did not build only roads, I built schools. I did not build only roads, I built electricity. I built farms. I created employment. Rivers State was not among the highest unemployed community in Nigeria.
“I felt that you employed me. I was not your master; I was your servant. I was not a contractor. I paid contractors so that they can pay their workers and the money will circulate.
“The reason why crime is high in Rivers State is that unemployment is very high. That the reason why we had the Songhai Farm. Today, the Songhai Farm is gone. That is why we had the Banana Farm that they stopped in Khana (Ogoniland).
“That is why we had fish farms and that is why we were building a farm in Etche. We were doing all those things to create employment for the youths. That is why we hired 13,200 teachers and that is why we sent our children overseas to study.”
However, the Rivers State Governor in a quick reaction contained in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, on Sunday said Amaechi’s failures during his tenure as the state governor as well as the current failures of the APC-led President Muhammadu Buhari at the federal level are factors responsible for the security challenges in the state.
The statement read, “Is unemployment fueling insecurity in Kaduna, Plateau, Borno, Yobe, Ondo, Ebony, Imo, Niger States governed by the All Progressives Congress (APC)?
“Is he (Amaechi) trying to indict his boss, President Muhammad Buhari, who is the Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and who is constitutionally saddled with the responsibility to provide security for Nigerians?
“It is a well-known fact that Amaechi is the one who appoints every Commissioner of Police that has been posted to Rivers State since 2015. So, if there is any security failure, he is to blame.”
Meanwhile, former President, Goodluck Jonathan, on Sunday, noted that while he was in office he never used his position to punish people.
Jonathan, who was once the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, later governed the state and from there became Vice-President before he emerged president of Nigeria.
The former President while speaking in Benin, during the 50th birthday celebration of Charles Osazuwa, president of the Rock of Ages Christian Assembly, said while in politics, he had a conviction to never cause the death of anyone.
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