Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has debunked the claim by former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi on his relationship with the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
The governor described as ludicrous Amaechi’s allegations that Prof. Yakubu once worked under him as a minister.
He urged security agencies to arrest his predecessor over his claims that he (Amaechi) opposed the reappointment of Yakubu because the INEC chairman was nominated by someone in President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s camp of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Wike said Amaechi’s public tantrums were tantamount to public incitement and should be treated as a threat to national security.
The governor, in a broadcast yesterday on the outcome of the March 18 governorship and House of Assembly election in Rivers State, described as laughable Amaechi’s outburst that the just-conducted general election by INEC was the worst in Nigeria’s history.
He said: “The truth was that Mahmood Yakubu never worked under me. Both of us worked in the Federal Ministry of Education. He was the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), supervised by the Minister of Education, while I was the Minister of State for Education.”
“At any rate, was Mahmood Yakubu the INEC chairman in the 2015 general election in Rivers State when we defeated him and his political party as a sitting governor and Director General of Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidential Campaign?
“Was it not the same Mahmood Yakubu that conducted the 2019 general election, which the APC and President Mohammadu Buhari won? Was he working for Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when, as a sitting super Minister of Transportation, he could not win 25 per cent for President Buhari in Rivers State in the 2019 general election?”
Wike wondered why it took such a long time for Amaechi, who was minister for over seven years under President Buhari, to speak out about his opposition to Yakubu’s reappointment.
The governor said in his frustration, Amaechi publicly denounced and claimed to know so much bad things about the Federal Government that he served for over seven years.
He added that the former minister lacked the courage to tell Nigerians what he claimed to know about Buhari’s government, which he alleged had failed.
Wike said: “In saner climes, law enforcement agencies should have invited such a devious and malignant character for hate speech, public incitement and threat to national security, public safety and order.
“By his mischievous statements, Rotimi Amaechi attempted to attribute, locate and blame his infamous political failures and frustrations in Rivers State on the INEC’s chairman.
“In the 2015 general election, we defeated him as a sitting governor and Director General of the Buhari Campaign in Rivers State. In the 2019 general election, we beat him as President Buhari’s super Minister and Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign.
“He could not even influence 25 per cent of the votes for his party, even after using the army to cause mayhem and attempt to rig the election. In 2023, we defeated him as an ordinary person. This shows that Rotimi Amaechi cannot win any electoral contest with us in Rivers State.”
