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By Joel Anekwe
Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has declared that the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) lacks platform to campaign for the 2019 election, adding that for the party to contemplate presenting a governorship candidate for the election shows that something is fundamentally wrong with the party.
In an interview in Port Harcourt on Wednesday Governor Wike reiterated his allegation of a plot by APC to rig the 2019 election, regretting that it does not believe in credible polls but that rigging and fraud is in its DNA.
“For the APC to even think of bringing up anybody against me in this state to challenge, whether I have done something or not, then you know that something is fundamentally wrong,” he said and queried; “What has the Federal Government done for the APC in Rivers State? What has Rivers APC achieved? Mention one thing. Is it in terms of the roads, the airport or seaports? Tell me”.
He added: “All their meetings, all their gatherings at the federal level, whether by hook or crook, they must have Rivers State. They want to use soldiers, SARs, DSS. All cries by the international community don’t matter. Just take Rivers State first”, he said.
Wike said that as a minister of state for Education, his contributions to the development of Rivers State are scattered across the state. He wondered why the current minister of Transportation has failed the people of Rivers State by refusing to attract a single project to the state.
The governor said: “When I was a minister and he was in APC, I brought development to the state. For example, I brought Faculty of Law to the University of Port Harcourt. I brought grant of N500million to Ken Saro Wiwa Polytechnic and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education. I am from Rivers State and must contribute to the development to the state. As at the time I was in the Federal Government, he was the Governor under APC and there was no development in the state. I brought UBEC intervention to Rivers State. This is my State.”
He went on to say that as governor of Rivers State, he has transformed the state, citing key projects across the state, adding that his third year anniversary celebration underscored the fundamentals of good governance with leaders across political, traditional and social divides commissioning key projects.
According to the governor, in October, his administration will commence another leg of project commissioning, announcing that President Muhammadu Buhari would be invited to commission projects, even though he is unlikely to honour the invitation for political reasons.
He said that contrary to the propaganda of the APC, he is not against the Federal Government but was only committed to the fight against injustice.
“That’s part of the misconception. I don’t stand up against Federal Government. I stand up against injustice and marginalization. It has nothing to do with the Federal Government. If this Government is not in place tomorrow and another government comes and they perpetrate injustice, I will stand up against them. It has nothing to do with Federal Government,” Wike said.
On the media propaganda by EFCC on the management of Rivers State finances under his leadership, Wike maintained that the law is settled that the EFCC has no powers to investigate the state government.
He said: “I am not interested whether EFCC backs off or not. A body that does not respect the rule of law, a body that is full of impunity, that is what the Federal Government is all about, impunity. You heard the President say National Interest supersedes rule of law. I am not against the EFCC fighting corruption, if at all they are fighting corruption.
“My concern is we must do it according to the law. The law says that we have a federation comprising the Federal Government, the states and the LGAs. We go to the monthly Federal Allocation when money comes to the Federation and all tiers take their share. The Federal Government is now saying that the money that comes to states will be monitored. ”
He noted that the EFCC can only be taken seriously if it operates within the rule of law by successfully appealing the 2007 judgment between the commission and the state government.
