The Rivers State Government yesterday said that current efforts by the immediate past governor of the state and current Minister of Transportation Mr Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi to impose a governor in the state will fail. In a statement in Port Harcourt, entitled “ Amaechi and the limits of hubris”, the state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Dr Austin Tam- George observed that the ex governor is already “ in campaign mode for the next election circle in the state” using the elaborate celebration of his 52nd birthday as a decoy. The government observed that the event was a “classic case of a rapist returning to his victim to ask for love” citing his past appalling record of political misbehavior and transgressions against the people. The statement accused him of refusal to pay pensioners their entitlements for six months contributing to the death of hundreds of “senior citizens in Rivers state from 2014 – 2015. It reminded the public that Amaechi was indicted for stealing billions of public funds by a court- approved judicial panel of inquiry set up by the state government. The government further accused him of plunging the state into economic problems through his “thoughtless policies and reckless public spending”. It derided his public posturing as the leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the state, describing it as the clearest indication of the moral carcass that the party of “change” has brought to Nigeria. The statement concluded by saying that “his administration was marked by myth making and public deceit”
Amaechi had yesterday celebrated a lavish birthday party where he made his oft-repeated declaration that the APC will take over the reins of governance in the state in 2019. The birthday party had in attendance APC stalwarts including the Plateau state governor Mr. Simon Lalong.