Why Wike, Rivers PDP Are Painting Me As Corrupt – Amaechi

Former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has accused his successor, Nyesom Wike, of painting him bad in the eyes of people of the state due to the incumbent’s fear of his rising influence in the current All Progressives Congress-led federal government.

Amaechi noted that since Wike and members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state are jittery over the likelihood of his appointment under the current dispensation, have moved to tarnish his image in the eyes of President Muhammadu Buhari, who stance on corruption is unmistakable.

The Rivers governor had recently advised President Buhari to distance himself from Amaechi, who was Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Organization, saying the seeming closeness between the two of them negates his anti-corruption posture.

The PDP in the state had also flayed the president for taking the former governor with him on his recent official visit to the U.S, alleging that such a corrupt person shouldn’t be seen in the company of the Nigerian leader.

But speaking Sunday night at a reception dinner organized in his honour in Abuja, Mr. Amaechi said the rising smear campaign against his person was because the political calculation in the state will change if he is appointed minister.
He said, “Let me tell you what is currently going on in Rivers State. The governor and PDP are afraid of me getting an appointment to the national executive council because that will determine what the politics of Rivers State will be.

“And they know that the current President abhors corruption and the only way they can stop me from getting the appointment is to paint me with corruption. And the people that know me in Rivers State know that I don’t like money. But I am not angry with them. My anger is that in Rivers they know I don’t like money. And I expect them to defend me that I don’t like money”.

The same Wike, according to Amaechi, who used to advise him that merely executing project without spending money on people would not earn him a second term in office, is now behind newspaper adverts tarnishing his reputation.

Amaechi added: “Governor Nyesome Wike has again sponsored one advert in a bid to rubbish me. He will go and publish in the paper on Monday as advert. Only God knows that if there is one thing I don’t like, I don’t like money. Anybody close to me knows that I don’t like money. Even Nyesom Wike told me you will not win second term if you don’t use money. So all this wasted projects will not deliver us. And I said let us do it once and for all”.