Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has made it clear that his administration was not competing with anybody and any state. He told Editors that came for the 2017 conference that Rivers State was marching ahead with an avalanche of project execution where most other states were struggling with salaries.
Wike played host again to 13th Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) after the 2015 hosting, saying it was too huge an opportunity for an opposition government to pass up. He said editors were in the best position to tell the world the truth about his administrations achievements and the security situation in the oil state.
At the opening ceremony of the 2017 Association of Nigerian Editors Conference (ANEC) in Port Harcourt, Wike said he had many projects to show to his guests; “When you undertake the tour, you will see the projects we’ve accomplished across the different priority areas, particularly, on road infrastructure, healthcare, education and security. You will see that we have since reconstructed almost all the bad roads in Port Harcourt city, including the ones in Diobu, mile one to mile three, Port Harcourt Township, old and new Government Reservation Areas, Harold Wilson Drive, Borokiri, D/Line, Oro-Worokwo, Ogbunabali, Nkporgu, Dr. Peter Odili road and other neighbourhoods of the State capital.”
Mentioning others, he said; “You will also see the intra, inter-city and inter-local government Area roads we have either completed or are ongoing. For instance, you will see completed or ongoing road projects in Abua/Odual, Akuku Toru Andoni, Etche, Ikwerre, OkrikaObio/Akpor, Emohua, Eleme, Tai, Gokana and Khana Local Government Areas of the State. You will further see our efforts in healthcare delivery. You will see that we have comprehensively reconstructed general hospitals in Abua, Nchia, Isiokpo, Rumuigbo, Abonnema, Bodo city, Opobo, Eberi-Omuma, Ngo, Emohua, Buguma and Okrika towns and communities across the State.”
He said he had remobilised contractors to work on the ‘mother and child hospital’ and three of the four regional hospitals started and abandoned by the previous administration. “You will also see several other projects that are already in use, including the Port Harcourt ultra-modern Pleasure Park, the Okrika jetty, the Ecumenical Centre, and the Port Harcourt NBA Law Centre complex. Again, you will also notice that we have initiated some new projects you did not see during your first visit, including the construction of internal roads and land reclamation in Emohua, Ikwerre, Asari Toru, Okirika, Degema Local Government Areas and the renovation of 185 basic education schools across the State.”
He said; “It is important to emphasise that we are not competing with anybody or any other State for laurels or for anything. We are simply doing our job as mandated by the good people of Rivers State and we are both grateful and encouraged by the outpourings of support and affection from our people. Furthermore, we are in a democracy and so we do fully acknowledge and respect the right of the opposition to criticize us as much as they can, but this right ought to be exercised in good faith and with all sense of responsibility. However, instead of projecting their relevance, if any, with alternative policies and programmes, the political opposition continues to live in denial of our achievements within two years as against the complete mess they left behind after being in power for eight unbroken years.”
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He criticised his opponents saying when they were on seat, many things including the judiciary crumbled. “For goodness sake, how do we compare? They viciously closed down the courts for no good reason and subjected every one of us in Rivers State to suffer the consequences of their obnoxious action for nearly two years.”
He went on: “We are all aware that even in the height of militancy by Niger Delta youths, not even a single oil facility was attacked, occupied or shut down in Rivers State because of the measures we put in place in conjunction with the security agencies to ensure security for all the vital national economic assets located in the State. We believe that the media will do Rivers people a lot of good, if they hold every public office holder, including those at the Federal level to the same levels of scrutiny accountability.”
He said the media in the state always goes into what he called muffled tones even when the political opposition goes to the extremity of using national institutions to undermine the authority of State Government, sabotage their security architecture, assault the national electoral system and intimidate the judiciary for self-seeking partisan goals. From the days of Mbu Mbu as commissioner of police, sitting governors in the state have always accused the police of carrying out hostile actions against the interest of the state and the media had always reported it.
Wike however charged: “How else can we situate the active and virulent involvement of the Nigerian Police in rigging the legislative re-run elections that took place in the State in March and December 2016 in favour of the opposition All Peoples Congress? Is it not offensively true that the Nigerian police has refused to investigate and prosecute those that were caught and arrested in the D/Line area of Port Harcourt for printing fake ballot papers with INEC’s authentic serial numbers to be used for the December 2016 re-run elections?’
He pursued: “Similarly, why has the Federal Government refused to prosecute the State Commander of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Mr. Akin Fakorede, who was caught on tape and seen on national television brutalising an electoral officer at a collation centre in furtherance of his partisan commitment to deliver fake results to the candidates of the All Progress Congress in the December 2016 rerun elections? How can we accept the situation where an election tribunal discarded authentic results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which is lawfully responsible for the management of elections, and in its place accepted fake results from the credibility-challenged Nigerian Police as the basis to provocatively award electoral victories to candidates of the All peoples Congress.’
Wike has continued to accuse the former SARS boss of offences. “Unassailable facts have just emerged about how SARS under Akin Fakorode has become an organize criminal robbery gang in the State, yet the Inspector General of Police would simply dismiss such serious allegations with a wave of the hand because the victims are Rivers people who are not entitled do justice. 35. We do believe that these recurrent acts of impunity, political intimidation, economic sabotage, state repression, election rigging, and abuse of power are wrongs not only against Rivers State; they are wrongs against the entire country.”
The president of the Guild, Funke Egbomode, said Rivers State was a good place for conferences and that no amount of propaganda would change that view.
Ignatius Chukwu
