— Eze… Says abandonment of state’s legacy aircraft in Germany for six years was a calculated scheme laced with jarring discordances to evade responsibility and highlights his administrative ineptitude…States that the truth is that Wike connived with other Jonathan’s Ministers to ban the Rivers State Plane from Flying in the Airspace of Nigeria…Says Nsirim, Okocha’s Injured Defences Failed to Address Real Issues
Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has expressed disgust over claims by Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, that the Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, while as Rivers Governor, flew and abandoned in Germany since 2012, an aircraft -Legacy 600, belonging to the state, in very surreptitious circumstances and without a trace of any documentation to that effect.
Describing the claim as terribly discordant with available records and facts, Chief Eze said as Chief of Staff to Amaechi, Gov. Wike is stocked with first-hand knowledge of every decision and action taken during the pendency of that administration over critical issues of public concern including the arrangement to fly the said Legacy 600 aircraft to Germany, for refurbishment after the State acquired a new air-plane which he now uses as Governor.
“The whole arrangement was made in 2011, before Amaechi sent his name to Jonathan for Ministerial appointment which he got on July 14, 2011. So by that, he was still part of the administration when the decision to send the Aircraft to Germany was taken”.
In a statement made available to media houses in Port Harcourt, the party Chief recalled that in 2015, while addressing a press conference in Government House, Port Harcourt a few months after he was sworn in to succeed Amaechi, Gov. Wike said he was sending a delegation to Germany to confirm the state of the said Legacy 600, – the aircraft in contention and negotiate the possible path to return same to the state.
The report which was widely published in some local and national newspapers in 2015 had the following excerpt from his statement -“We are sending somebody to Germany tomorrow. I got security information that plane is parked somewhere in Germany. As I speak to you, there was no report, no handover to say this is where it is. There is another one parked at the Air Force Base. I heard it will take about two months before it be fixed.”
Between 2015 when Gov. Wike sent an agent to Germany and 2022, is about eight years and only a clueless Governor like him, with a defective understanding of leadership and hollow sense of reasoning will abandon a state asset in a foreign land for eight years only to wake up one morning to apportion blame to a man so faultless.
It is even more embarrassing to the sensibilities of the lettered Rivers public to hear the Governor mention that €3million or about N1.5Bn have been expended on clearing the accumulated parking fee for the number of years the air craft was in Germany and even more millions of Euros have gone down the drain in servicing the engine ad general overhaul of the Legacy-600.
One would have loved to see a situation where the Governor puts up the aircraft for sale, in line with the initial arrangement of the previous administration, to generate money and channel same to some reasonable, fruitful ventures. Rather than that, the Governor opted for a bizarre economic waste as usual.
It is important to note that contrary to the claims of Gov. Wike, the Legacy 600 aircraft, its movement and domicile in Germany are contained in the handover note of the Ministry of Transport prepared at the end of the Chibuike Amaechi administration in 2015, and this fact has earlier been buttressed by George Tolofari, who served as Commissioner in that Ministry in the previous administration.
It is an amusing bit of foolery for Gov. Wike to go the length of dragging the Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, into the messy waters of calumny with very discordant narratives in a bid to evade responsibility for the huge waste to which he has committed the state.
What more could be more idiotic and senseless than a Governor who freely engages in fanfare of squander-mania, this time, to the extent of burning millions of Euros on a venture that promises no yield for the state and her people especially, at a time when the complaint of paucity of funds is his daily anthem and biggest selling point for his abysmal performance and colossal failure to allow democratic dividends trickle down to the people.
Eze counseled the Governor to desist from dragging the Transportation Minister into trivial issues, stressing that the former Rivers Governor and other members of the Muhammadu Buhari team are preoccupied with very sensitive national engagements geared towards placing the country on the path of progress and complementing ongoing efforts at lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty.
The party chieftain also discredited the efforts of two of Wike’s allies who tried so hard but failed to force the Wike lies to stick, forcing the falsehood to crumble like poor paint on a wet wall.
The security helicopter bought by the Amaechi administration was stopped from flying and doing its job for very frivolously annoying reasons and till this day, many still believe that the chance lost to deploy that asset is reason the state lost the opportunity to totally win the war against violence which returned in full scale when Wike took over and freed the dogs of vandals and integrated them into his work plan.
Eze expressed concern over Gov. Wike’s habitual strife towards the Transportation Minister especially, each time Nigerians plan to honor him in recognition of his efforts and sacrifices towards the success of the Buhari/APC administration and the overall development of the country.
“Any time Amaechi is to receive one accolade or the other from Nigerians, the Wike administration would always cook up one frivolous issue to discredit the Minister and poison the minds of the people and scare them away”.
Chief Eze called on Nigerians to be wary of the antics of Gov. Wike, whose docile posture represents a clear departure from the norms of leadership and democratic tenets in a progressive clime.
The APC kingpin stated that both Paulinus Nsirim and Tony Okocha’s injured defences of the Wike lies failed to address real issues such as; whether or not Wike was Chief of Staff when the decision to take the aircraft to Germany was taken in 2012.
Whether or not Wike addressed the press in 2015 where he said he had found the aircraft was in Germany.
Whether or not the latest discovery – Legacy 600 and the first aircraft discovered in 2015 are one and the same.
Eze described as clueless, claims by an ex-Amaechi aide, Tony Okocha, the man who replaced Wike as Chief of Staff, Government House, that the Commissioner of Transport had no right to do hand over note on the air stocks.
He queried whether applying to manage the planes in Govt House removes them from being property of Ministry of Transport.
It is saddening to learn that Wike who was part of the FG caucus that grounded the Rivers planes both at home and abroad is now making ‘discovery’ of them, even when FAAN had in 2013 given reasons why it grounded the planes and stopped the ones abroad from flying in.
Eze recalled that Gov. Wike helped the Jonathan administration to divert Rivers oil wells to Bayelsa State and other states, transferred the disputed money kept in an escrow account to Bayelsa, grounded the state planes, stoped drawdown of loans to Rivers and frustrated the refund of over N100Bn spent on federal projects, etc, and thus should desist from posing as a messiah, fighting for today what he fought against yesterday.
Eze, however, suggested that the aircraft be sold to raise fund to tackle critical issues of public concerns such as the huge debts owed pensioners, job creation, youth empowerment, agricultural development, investment in education and health, all of which have received very little or no attention from the current administration under Gov. Wike and the People’s Democratic Party.
Finally Eze commended Chief Emmanuel Chindah, erstwhile Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon. George Tolofari, fmr Commissioner for Transportation, Barr. Ezemonye Ezekiel Amadi fmr Commissioner for Lands and all the stakeholders who ensured that the lies of Governor Nyesom Wike and some of his misguided allies were thrown to the dustbin where it rightly belongs. I pray that we all work like this in future to ensure that Gov Wike stops his motor park type of administration politics in Rivers State.
Ends
Signed
Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze,
APC Chieftain & former National Publicity Secretary, nPDP
