'I'll manipulate judiciary against Amaechi', Rivers Gov allegedly says

The feud between the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, seems to have no end.

Just when many had thought that the recent meeting of the political rivals in the State might somewhat mend their severed relationship - at least at face value - apparently Wike and Amaechi are not finished.

Last week, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, accompanied by Amaechi, visited Rivers to commission some completed projects by the Wike administration.

During the visit, Wike and Amaechi flew in the same helicopter, although reports said Osinbajo compelled them.

play Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo discussing with Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike at the Port Harcourt International Airport
(Guardian Newspaper)

However, in a statement issued by Amaechi's media office on Sunday, July 30, the Minister accused Wike of boasting that he has the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen and the judiciary as a whole in his pocket.

The Governor allegedly bragged that he can manipulate any judgement against Amaechi.

The Minister also alleged that Wike is running an administration "that embarks on wholesale forgery and distortion of government documents and then retails it out to his minions, the media and now the judiciary in a shameful and futile bid to defame and destroy Amaechi."

The statement reads:

"Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike has continued to twist, falsify and forge fresh documents that he intends to use against the immediate past governor of the state and now Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

"Wike wants to use the elaborately distorted and most times outright but carefully forged documents to persecute and prosecute his erstwhile benefactor in court. In the past couple of days, Wike has been telling anyone who cares to listen, bragging that he will certainly get a conviction, a judgement against Amaechi in the law courts on spurious charges of corruption using his forged documents because he (Wike) is in control of the judiciary at the state and national level.

"For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state that Wike has been boasting that he has the judges in the Rivers State judiciary in his pocket, that he’s in full control and that the State Judiciary would always give him any judgement he wants against Amaechi.

"Furthermore, Wike is bragging that the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) is his ‘main man’, that would readily and easily assist him to get any judgement he wants against Amaechi at the apex court, using his contorted documents.

"Wike is also telling anyone who cares to listen that the Supreme Court (Justices) and judges generally are not happy with Amaechi and so they would easily convict him with any forged document he presents in court. Power drunk Wike is using the recent visit of the CJN to Rivers State as his bragging right to prove his ‘extreme’ closeness to the CJN.

"Nigerians would recall that only a few days back, Livingstone Wechie, the young man Wike used to accuse Amaechi of corruption and write false and frivolous petitions to the National Assembly, EFCC etc, confessed in a live television programme and in a statement he also circulated to the media, that all the documents he used to wrongfully portray Amaechi as corrupt when he governed Rivers State, were phonies, forged documents given to him by Wike’s Rivers State Government House.

"Wechie also admitted, like we have always said, that the forged documents were used as the template and basis for the Justice Omereji led Judicial Commission of Inquiry, a panel Wike set up early in his administration to witch-hunt, malign, vilify and persecute Amaechi.

"Sadly, this is the kind of administration that presides over the affairs of Rivers people. An administration that embarks on wholesale forgery and distortion of government documents and then retails it out to his minions, the media and now the judiciary in a shameful and futile bid to defame and destroy Amaechi. Brazenly, without any scruples, Governor Wike runs an administration that manufactures and concocts documents to indict Amaechi of corruption. Yes, this is the kind of character, a low-level con man that is at the helm of affairs in Rivers State. “Since he became governor, Wike’s sole agenda has been to attack and vilify Rotimi Amaechi, no matter how ridiculous and silly he sounds.

"Since he became governor, Wike’s sole agenda has been to attack and vilify Rotimi Amaechi, no matter how ridiculous and silly he sounds.   Every day in Rivers State, there is one frivolous, false story of what Amaechi did or didn’t do. Same pattern, the same blatant lies using distorted and forged documents, same old concocted stories of corruption allegations against Amaechi told with different twists.

"Nigerians will not forget in a hurry how Nyesom Wike, hurriedly called a suspicious late night press conference to lie that the over $43 million found by EFCC in a luxury apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos, and the apartment belongs to Amaechi. “Wike shamelessly said that the money was part of what was stolen from Rivers State – and warehoused in the Ikoyi house – by his predecessor and current Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

"Not done with his concocted tales, Wike went further to threaten the President Mohammadu Buhari administration with fire and brimstone if the money is not returned to him (Wike).

"Wike shamelessly said that the money was part of what was stolen from Rivers State – and warehoused in the Ikoyi house – by his predecessor and current Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

"He gave the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to return the money; otherwise, he would institute the mother of all legal actions against the Buhari government to recover the money.

"That’s the typical Wike, a lying, reckless, irresponsible and brutal forger that has become the laughing stock of his peers and the nation."

Also on Sunday, 300 members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ubima in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers decamped to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Ubima is the hometown of Amaechi.

The Minister served as the fifth Governor of Rivers State from 2007 to 2015.