Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze has refuted report on circulation alleging that former Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi made a gesture of objection to the planned infrastructure award investiture on the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike as well as lambasted the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, for naming the Governor “Mr. Projects”.
According to the report, the former Rivers Governor had visited the Villa shortly before the nomination of Wike and demanded to see President Muhammadu Buhari to express his displeasure over the development, but was bluffed by authorities who informed him that his request cannot be granted at the moment, leaving him with no option than to take his protest to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Adamu whom he told honouring Wike is insensitive to the plights of Rivers APC members and a big blow to their quest to wrestle power from the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State.
In a statement made available to media houses in Port Harcourt, Eze said the cocktail of lies paraded by the report published in the “New Telegraph is roundly unfit for any response given that its foundation is rooted in the soil of purveyors of falsehood but however stated that the sanity of the reading public who may have been swayed by the calumnious contents of the fabricated narrative propelled a response.
The party chieftain said, “Having associated with the former Minister for some couple of years,it is not in his character to withhold good from any man when it is in the powers of his hands to do so”.
He,therefore, wondered what would prompt a negative blood or warrant jealousy in the former Governor over “a paid, unmerited award that was deliberately arranged to help a man with a sinking political career score some cheap and useless political points”.
He alleged that the report was cooked up by the government of Rivers State in a bid to attract the attention of the former Minister to the planned award bought by Gov. Wike and help give the planned event a wider and undue publicity.
Eze said, “if any person or group should protest, it should be Rivers people who are suffering the consequences of the financial prodigality of Gov. Wike, who defied every warnings against his reckless handling of the states resources to waste another round of hundreds of millions of Rivers money in bribe to officials of the Federal Government to arrange the said award to him to continue to float on the waters of politics”.
While describing Gov. Wike as lacking in character, Eze said it will amount to sheer mediocrity and deliberate corruption for some top government officials to succeed in deceiving President Buhari to hand the said award to a Governor whose acclaimed achievements is by no means reflecting on the lives of the people of Rivers State, a state that ranks top in the poverty index of the country.
Exonerating Amaechi further Chief Eze said the former Rivers Governor is a thoroughbred, a special breed and man of character and thus would never stoop low to the extent of commenting on a matter as trivial as a paid and arranged award investiture, let alone raising an objection to it when such ensnaring and corruption-ridden engagement has no effect on his personality.
Calling on the public to trash the falsehood, Eze cautioned the perpetrators of the false narrative to act with conscience and not allow the love for money to overwhelm the humanity in them, noting that smear campaigns against Amaechi by those seeking undue attention to massage their exaggerated hubris will yield no credit.
