The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has described his predecessor in Rivers Government House Rotimi Amaechi as too corrupt to fight corruption.
Wike, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme Tuesday night, said Nigerians should ignore Amaechi’s vow to fight corruption if elected president in 2027.
Wike listed what he called the manifestations of corruption by Amechi when he was governor of Rivers state.
He alleged that Amaechi sold the state’s Gas Turbine for $308 million to Sahara Energy and could not account for the money. Other acts of alleged corruption perpetrated by Amaechi include: Embezzlement of $30 million to build Karibi Whyte hospital which was never built; spending N74 billion on a monorail project of which about 1.7 km was done; took the state’s legacy aircraft and hid it in Germany for 12 years until he (Wike) was able to trace the aircraft and bring it back to Nigeria (the plane is being used today, he said); sale of a Dash-8 jet belonging to Rivers state to Amaechi’s friend Liyel Imoke for a mere $5 million yet the money could not be accounted for.
Wike also described the presidential ambition of Amaechi as dead on arrival.
Amaechi is currently a member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) opposition coalition but Wike said Amaechi won’t get the ADC ticket for the 2027 poll.
Wike said: “He (Amaechi) knows he won’t get the ticket. I read that he said he knows the weaknesses of the president, so he knows how to defeat him, but he also knew the weaknesses of the president in 2022 when the president defeated him mercilessly in the primary.
“Nigerians know the last person they will give a ticket to because they know it (Amaechi’s bid) is dead on arrival.”
Amaechi was the governor of Rivers state from May 2007 to May 2015, when he handed over to Wike, who was in office for eight years.
