Nawa O: Amaechi accuses Wike of diverting N45bn loan

THE immediate past governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has accused the Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike, of diverting N45bn loan taken by his administration.

Amaechi made this statement, on Sunday, at a special thanksgiving service organised to mark the October 25 ruling of the Supreme Court, which brought him into power as governor in 2007.
He said, “I borrowed N300bn and I paid N245bn back and I left about N15bn. But now, they are not borrowing to pay contractors. Rather they are borrowing for themselves.
“Borrow to pay contractors not for your purse. They have borrowed N45bn and nobody is seeing it. If you put N45bn in the state economy, the state will be bouncing. They will employ more workers, pay them and you will see things working.”
Amaechi lamented the situation of things in the state and maintained that projects embarked upon by his administration were valuable .
He said, “It is those roads that I have done that they are driving on. The stadium road was done by me and they are driving on it. I did underground gutter, but they are building gutter and covering it.
Reacting, the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the State Governor, Opunabo Inko-Tariah, described the allegation by Amaechi as malicious and spurious.
“On the malicious and spurious allegation by Rotimi Amaechi that Gov. Wike borrowed N45bn to line his pocket, it is laughable. Amaechi himself in one of his speeches said Governor Wike would inherit an empty treasury which was fleeced dry by him.
“Therefore, if Governor Wike, who inherited an empty treasury, could achieve the level of infrastructural development we are witnessing today and can also clear the unjustifiable liabilities he inherited from Amaechi as evidenced in his speech,where then did he get the money from to do all that that have put smiles on the faces of Rivers people who were despondent and frustrated under Amaechi if not with the loans he collected with the imprimatur of the House of Assembly?
“This obviates the need for any further evidence that the loans collected were judiciously applied and in tandem with the reasons for which they were collected. The allegation has no ounce of truth in it. Rivers people are quite intelligent to be deluded by such cheap lies,” Inko-Tariah said.