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By Joel Anekwe, PORT HARCOURT
The simmering conflict between the governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, went up a notch on Saturday, as both camps leveled allegations of attempted assassination on the other.
The Rivers State Government on Saturday announced that security personnel attached to the minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, had attacked Governor Wike’s convoy.
Wike’s special assistant on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakudu, in a statement, said the attack was carried out by some men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and soldiers in the minister’s motorcade.
According to Nwakudu, Governor Wike “on Saturday, escaped assassination as Special Anti-robbery Squad operatives and soldiers of the Nigerian Army in the motorcade of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi attacked his convoy.”
The attack allegedly took place at Nwaja Junction on Trans-Amadi Road while Wike was on project inspection.
“The SARS personnel and soldiers in the minister’s convoy hit down the governor’s escort rider and attacked the policemen in the pilot car. Mr Debewari, aide -de- camp, to the minister supervised the attack, which included damage of cameras held by journalists,” the statement alleged.
It added “part of the attack, was the commander of Rivers SARS, Mr Akin Fakorede who received the minister of Transportation at the Port Harcourt International Airport and accompanied on his trip.”
Nwakudu noted that after the attack, the Rivers State governor continued with his inspection of projects, adding that he was not harmed, despite the attack.
But in a counter on Saturday, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi’s media office alleged “a blatant show of naked raw power by security men attached to the Governor Nyesom Wike.”
They said the minister of Transportation “this afternoon narrowly escaped being shot by security men attached to the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike. His car wasn’t that lucky though. The car was vandalized with a broken side mirror.”
According to Amaechi’s media office, “Accompanied by cars of many of his supporters, the minister’s black jeep was intercepted and blocked at the junction by the security motorcycle outrider attached to Wike after two cars had passed through. One of the two cars had security men assigned to protect the minister in Port Harcourt. Suddenly, gun-toting security men attached to Wike’s convoy surrounded the minister’s car, threatening to shoot him. They hit the car, tried to smash the windscreens, back and side windows and broke a side mirror. All through this attack, Amaechi remained calm, inside the fortified Jeep. While the attacked occurred, Wike remained inside his vehicle.
“The minister eventually passed through after the intervention of the security team on ground to protect him in Port Harcourt. However, when Governor Wike got to the point where the incident occurred after Amaechi’s vehicle had gone by, his security men blocked the road again, dragged out from a vehicle and thoroughly beat up a police man attached to protect Amaechi in Port Harcourt. The Policeman’s riffle was also taken from him.
“Wike came out of his car, and with his security team was going from one vehicle to another, of Amaechi supporters, charging at them, harassing and abusing them. Wike’s security men were heard loudly insulting Amaechi and called him all sorts of derogative names,” the Amaechi media team said, noting that “this is a crass show of high handedness, arbitrary behaviour and abuse of public office by a state governor who has no care for the safety of Rivers people.”
Earlier, in a telephone chat with our correspondent, the SARS commander, Akin Fakorede, said the state government’s allegation was a lie and referred him to Nnamdi Omoni, the Police Public Relations Officer, Rivers Police Command for further comments.
While the Police Public Relations Officer, Omoni confirmed that the information had got to him but could not yet determine whether it was true or not and what exactly transpired. He said he would make a definite statement on the matter after meeting with the Commissioner of Police Ahmed Zaki.
