Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, yesterday justified his comments in the build up to the March 19 legislative rerun elections in the state that those coming with the intentions to rig should “write their will”.
Speaking when he appeared as a guest in Sunrise Daily, a breakfast programme of Channels Television, broadcast live from the Government House, Port Harcourt, Wike said that he made the statement which some of his critics believe is an evidence of his support for violence, in reference to those who might have sinister intention.
Fielding questions on a wide range of issues, he also boasted that it will be an uphill task for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state to be defeated by the All Progressives Congress or any other political party.
The governor noted that the state was in the firm grip of the PDP, besides his administration’s modest achievements in its short period in office.
Wike stressed that Rivers residents were determined to vote for the PDP because of his achievements in the last few months in office.
According to him: “It is difficult for anybody to defeat us in Rivers State because of the projects I have done in my short stay in office, and the fact that Rivers is a PDP state.
“The civil servants are happy with us. Nobody would be happy when, at the end of the month, they cannot take their wages home.
“We have done much to fulfil our campaign promises. If you go to Borokiri, where the former governor was living at Okaki Street, everybody was afraid to go there because of bad roads. But today, we have fixed the road and the people are happy.
“In Diobu axis, we had many bad roads before now. But today, we have fixed them. The general hospitals were dead; some health centres were not functioning. What we are trying to do, as a matter of policy, is to pick one hospital in each of the three senatorial districts and equip it.
“We are also going to train and retrain our doctors. For now, we are focusing on health and education. We don’t want to carry all at the same time.
“We received N4 billion as (federal) allocation when our salary wage is N5.5 billion. How do we make up to pay salaries? When we took over, I had an IGR of N4 billion to N5 billion, but as I speak to you, we have improved our IGR to between N9 and N10 billion.
“This means nobody is running away from the state, because if people were leaving the state, our IGR would not have increased. And if the insecurity is much as is being claimed, why is our IGR increasing? Yet, if you read the newspapers, people would say the state is Rivers of blood”.
The governor, who pledged not to complete the monorail project started by his predecessor, said Rivers residents and other stakeholders told him to jettison the project and focus on another, which would have direct impact on the people.
He disclosed that the monorail project had already gulped over N45 billion, adding that he did not want to have a headache over a ‘white elephant’ project.
Wike also accused his former boss and Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, of attempting to destabilise the state because of his “desperation” to capture the state for his party, the APC.
The governor said it was now evident that the APC could not defeat the PDP in the state.
He noted that if President Muhammadu Buhari supported him, he would achieve peace and stability in the state.
Wike, however, lamented the frequent change of his security chiefs, saying the rotation would jeopardize his plan to tackle the security challenges in the state.
He said: “The continued removal of the commissioners of police, director of State Security Service and other security chiefs in the state is to frustrate our effort. Of course, the minister is behind this, and people are saying we should reconcile. In what way?
“That means if I reconcile with him, they would not be removing my security chiefs. That was why I said we are personalising this, it shouldn’t be. If there is need that we should come together to talk, we should not be desperate to take over the state. As far as I am concerned, I don’t want to assert that kind of responsibility.
“But the issue of security is not political. We are fighting to stop this situation and there is a system trying to destabilise the state by removing the commissioners of police all the time. This is a man who has served as governor for eight years and Speaker for eight years. What has the state not done for him?
“As far as I am concerned, the Federal Government should support me by leaving the security chiefs to plan for the security problem in the state. The only problem we have with the election is for the umpire to say we must be fair to all. Security people should not be used to manipulate the process.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should stop employing those who, one way or the other, have interest in a political party. That is the way we can maintain peace”.
