Wike, Amaechi square up over probe

The probe panel inaugurated by the new administration of Nyesom Wike in Rivers State to look into the activities of his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi is still generating heated arguments between both parties.

The war of words continued on Tuesday, as Wike, in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after a meeting President Muhammadu Buhari had with state governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said Amaechi needed not to entertain any fear over the probe panel if he had no skeleton in his cupboard.

Amaechi, on his part, who spoke through his former Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, accused Wike of stopping the Federal Government from refunding N108bn it owed the state.

Justifying the probe panel he set up, Wike said, “The essence of the judicial commission does not have to do with a witch-hunt of anybody, but to understand things we could not have understood.

“If he had worked with the transition committee we set up, the committee would have asked one or two questions. No transition committee was set up by the government (Amaechi’s administration).”

The governor insisted a Lexus Jeep (bulletproof) seized from Semenitari belonged to the state government.

He alleged that the commissioner initially said the car was given to by her husband and later claimed that it was a parting gift from government.

According to him, there are no documents to back both claims by the former commissioner.

He recalled that Amaechi, during his administration, set up many probe panels, adding that nobody said such panels were aimed at nailing those opposed to him.

He said apart from owing workers, two months salaries, the last administration refused to pay players of Sharks, Dolphin and Rivers Angels football clubs for eight months.

Wike said that pensioners in the state had not been paid since February, adding that there was refuse in the whole of Port Harcourt, because refuse contractors were being owed.

But Amaechi had denied all these allegations, saying he had left the state far better than he met it over eight years ago.

Amaechi in Abuja on Tuesday added that because his government was accountable to the people, he would not shy away from giving the account of his stewardship to the electorate.

Amaechi, who spoke through Semenitari, debunked the claim by Wike that he did not leave any handover notes behind.

She said that all the commissioners and heads of MDAs submitted their handover notes to the Secretary to the State Government, who forwarded same to the Head of the State Civil Service as is appropriate.

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