Rivers State governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has again been speaking on why he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Governor Amaechi said he joined the APC to protect the interests of Rivers State that has been neglected by the PDP Federal Government. He said the state suffers neglect and victimisation in the absence of Federal Government projects and the ceding of oil wells belonging to the state to neighbouring states.
The governor urged the people of the state to be politically conscious and become agents of progressive change to vote out the ruling PDP at the federal level. Governor Amaechi spoke while having an interactive session with medical doctors in the state in Port Harcourt yesterday.
Amaechi said APC holds the light to the country’s rapid development. He also said the party is the alternative to the PDP in the attempt to reduce poverty in the country.
He said one of the reasons for his disagreement with the Federal Government was the Soku oil wells in Rivers State that were ceded to Bayelsa State and which the Rivers State government contested in court. “So for Rivers State, basically that is the cause of the quarrel and you have a choice to make.
The choice for me, if you ask me to advise you, is to vote out PDP and there is no sentiment about that. “Legally, we have not lost Soku (oil wells). We have just lost Soku to the fact that the President is from Bayelsa. When a president that is not from Bayelsa comes, he will look at the facts and the facts are there.
“The Federal Government in its writing to the court said; “Sorry, court, we made a mistake, we will correct the mistake” and we have told Federal Government; “Don’t call us for a meeting, go and correct that mistake.
“How could you people wake up in 2011, suddenly changed the map of Nigeria and take Soku into Bayelsa State?” Amaechi said the Jonathan administration has failed to execute a road project awarded by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration to link the oil-rich Bonny Island in Rivers State.
“That road to Bonny was awarded by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. They started; they’ve done just one bridge. The road has been abandoned. Yar’Adua tried to restart it but he stopped.
“President Goodluck Jonathan has forgotten about that road completely despite the fact that part of the money that feeds the Nigerian economy comes from that place, Bonny.
That’s where you have the natural gas plant.” He also disclosed that the Federal Government has not reimbursed the state for the N105 billion spent on the Port Harcourt-Owerri federal road and Eleme and Agip flyovers in the state, among others.
On his government’s bid to secure loan to provide potable water for Rivers people, Amaechi said the loan is been held up because of the challenge posed by the minister of finance, who has not signed off on the loan.
He reiterated that his decision to join the APC is not for his personal interests but for the state. He urged the people to discourage politics based on tribe or region and play politics for the collective interests of the people.
