APC lambasts Governor Wike over Rivers State’s abandoned aircraft since 2015

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti has berated the Nyesom Wike over claims that his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi abandoned the state’s aircraft in Germany.

Wike had alleged that Amaechi secretly abandoned aircraft belonging to the state in Germany.

He said it would cost the state three million Euros (not 300 million Euros as erroneously reported yesterday) to repay and retrieve the aircraft.

Reacting, APC’s spokesman, Senibo Chris Finebone in a statement said when Wike took over in 2015, he claimed the same aircraft had been stolen, now he is saying the aircraft was secretly abandoned.

Finebone also condemned the alleged forced eviction of waterfront communities in the Diobu axis of the state capital city. 

The statement read, “It was long expected that the very bad governance of Gov. Nyesom Wike will further slide as 2023 general elections approached. What was not envisaged was the speed and how early in 2022 things would plummet leaving hapless Rivers people and residents with the short end of the stick.

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“The year began with a New Year broadcast by Gov Wike serving to warn how he intended to fight illegal crude oil refiners in Rivers State. Ordinarily, the announcement was received with animated enthusiasm by all, at least, believing that the action would bring the persistent soot bedevilling our lives to an end. 

“In the melodrama that ensued, the governor and his men embarked on some knee jerk discovery and destruction of some refining sites and equipment. After a few days, the governor yielded the fight to the local government bosses. How well the fight is being conducted and the expected positive result appears to pale into insignificance while the soot is still ravaging our lives.

“Next was the rediscovery of what the governor had earlier ‘discovered’ on the assumption of office in 2015. Faced with the attraction of having a second aircraft to aid his godfather status in PDP, Gov Wike suddenly remembered that the Rivers State-owned Legacy 600 aircraft sitting somewhere in Germany would be handy.

“He decided to create some drama around the aircraft so that Rivers people and Nigerians get talking while he snuck the refurbished aircraft into Nigeria for the use of his party during the approaching campaigns. Thinking of himself as a smart artful dodger, he plotted that act such that we all will be thanking him for playing Mungo Park to the aircraft while his party people use it at the expense of Rivers taxpayers.

“But as they say, there is never a perfect crime. Gov Wike forgot that he had addressed the press on June 20, 2015, speaking extensively on the location of the two State-owned aircraft. He had said one aircraft was grounded at the Port Harcourt Airforce Base and the Legacy 600 somewhere in Germany. Then he had promised and did send someone to Germany the next day being 21st June 2015 to confirm the status of the Legacy 600.

“Suddenly, in 2022 the governor announced seven clear years after, that he just discovered (maybe rediscovered) a state-owned aircraft spirited away to Germany by his predecessor through unexplained intelligence. But we caught him red-handed! Hardly had he finished his announcement when a journalist sent a link to a publication dated 21st June 2015 where a national newspaper reported Gov Wike’s speech on the same aircraft about a month after he was sworn in as governor in 2015. This lie by him was effectively busted. 

“The governor said he had already spent over 3m Euro on the Legacy 600. But concerned Rivers people query why the governor should profligately spend such a humongous sum of money on an aircraft with a very high total cost of ownership (particularly high operating cost due to age). But Rivers’ people mean nothing to the governor. He is bent on spending our common resources under his control as he pleases as long as he will use the aircraft for campaigns as against the intention of his predecessor to fix the aircraft and sell it off to stem further financial haemorrhage on the state coffers. After all, Rivers State is governed by a ‘big boy.’

“It was disheartening to be greeted on the social media this morning by a group of elderly men and women singing and praying to God for divine intervention so that Gov Wike may pay them their gratuity and pension even as many of them have already died for lack of subsistence and medical care. Many might be wondering why a state whose governor doles out hundreds of millions of Naira to faraway states has refused to pay gratuity and pensions to senior citizens of his own State who spent the best part of their lives serving the State. But it is what it is! We have watched some families that hitherto lived well, now scrounge to have one meal a day because they are not paid their due pensions.”