Security concerns in Rivers as Amaechi threatens, ‘Whatever Wike wants…we’ll give him’

There are serious concerns that the presidential election slated for Saturday may turn violent in Rivers State, if the fiery speeches of ex-Governor Rotimi Amaechi, now Minister of Transport and Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organization, are anything to go by.

Speaking Tuesday at the presidential campaign rally in Port-Harcourt, Amaechi called out incumbent Governor Nyesom Wike for being an ungrateful man, having allegedly failed to acknowledge him as a benefactor.

He said, “Whatever Wike wants on Saturday, we will give him. Whatever the PDP wants in Rivers State, we are equal to the task. It’s as simple as that. It gets to a stage where a man must be a man. Your Excellency, I’m not going to Abuja anymore. I am here from today till (Election Day).

“In 2015, the army tried to arrest me as a sitting governor. You have a governor who is busy lobbying us, trying to negotiate with us, ‘Let us give you presidency, you give me governor.’ He is afraid. We will battle him to the last. On Saturday, they should get ready.

Read also: #NigeriaDecides2019: Buhari accepts APC’s fate in Rivers, alludes to ‘respect for institutions’

“The support we want is that the President should just thank us when we finish. We are ready for them. They used federal and state institutions against us. They kill our people, APC people, every day; cut off their necks every day. The right to choose our leaders to stop the killings — they got a state high court judge to give judgment.”

He added, “Wike was my chief of staff. I made him chairman of council. I nominated him as a minister. When he saw Goodluck, he betrayed me. I have been betrayed serially, including senators. After you finish helping them, after praying for them, they go and betray you for a pot of porridge. Saturday is our day.”

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) go into the elections as the dominant parties. Governor Nyesom Wike and Amaechi have been at daggers drawn over who controls Rivers politics.

APC, by virtue of a Supreme Court judgment, has lost the opportunity to present candidates in the gubernatorial and State Assembly elections.

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