Wike, Amaechi Resume Battle over Guber Poll in Rivers

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has resumed battle with the immediate past Minister of Transportation and his estranged principal, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, ahead of the Saturday, March 18, governorship and House of Assembly elections in the state.

Wike has insisted that his preferred governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Siminialaye Fubara, who has remained in hiding since emerging candidate, would succeed him after his tenure elapsed on May 29, this year.

On his part, the former governor, who has shown visible commitment to the campaign of the APC gubernatorial candidate, Tonye Cole, had on different occasions, criticised the Wike-led government.

The former minister had told Igbo stakeholders in Port Harcourt, that an APC government would abolish discrimination of non-indigenes in the state as he did during his administration, and pleaded with the Igbo residents to support Cole for a better, prosperous Rivers State.

Amaechi further assured the people that the government of Cole, hopefully, would return all abandoned property to the non-indigenes, and regretted that since the Wike government came on board, non-indigenes in the state had suffered discrimination.

Responding, Wike, yesterday, said it was distasteful for Amaechi to play politics with the issue of abandoned property that was allegedly considered legally closed and could not be revisited.

At the meeting presided by Wike, the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Zacchaeus Adangor (SAN), challenged the comments by Amaechi, stressing that the issue of abandoned property in Rivers State, was essentially and palpably one of law.

“You will recall that the Abandoned Property Edit No. 8 of 1969 established the Abandoned Property Custody and Management Authority and charged that authority and the responsibility of managing the property of non indigene left unattended during the Civil War.

“The constitutionality of that law has been tested in several decisions of our court, including that of the Supreme Court and that law is still a subsisting law, and it has never been invalidated by any judgment of the court. The matter as far as we’re concerned, is closed legally close and cannot be revisited,” Adangor said.

Similarly, Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Dr. Tammy Danagogo, said Amaechi was trying to reawaken the issue of the abandoned property in Rivers State, and dismissed it as reckless.