Amaechi, Wike Trade Tackles Over Insecurity In Rivers

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi,on Sunday clashed over the spate of insecurity in the state.

Amaechi who spoke while presiding over the formal defection of two former commissioners in the Governor Nyesom Wike-led administration and others to the All Progressives Congress in Port Harcourt on Sunday attributed the rising crime in parts of Rivers State to the high level of unemployment.

He also accused Wike of acquiring properties everywhere in the state.

But Wike said it was disingenuous for the minister to blame the security challenge in the state on unemployment, saying the failure of the APC-led Federal Government was responsible for the insecurity in the country and not unemployment.

Amaechi said, “Rivers State is in danger, completely; a state where properties are being collected and somebody is busy building everywhere and nobody is talking.

“When I was governor, God knows, I did my best. I did not build only roads, I built schools. I built electricity. I built farms. I created employment.

“The reason why crime is high in Rivers State is because of unemployment is very high. That the reason why we had the Songhai Farm. Today, the Songhai Farm is gone. That is why we had the Banana Farm that they stopped in Khana (Ogoni land)

“ We were doing all those things to create employment for the youths. That is why we hired 13,200 teachers and that is why we sent our children overseas to study,” Amaechi said.

But Wike in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, on Sunday said Amaechi was indicting his boss and the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), knowing full well that the latter was constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of providing security for Nigerians.

The statement reads, “Is unemployment fuelling insecurity in Kaduna, Plateau, Borno, Yobe, Ondo, Ebony, Imo and Niger states governed by the All Progressives Congress?

Also read: https://abntv.com.ng/2021/04/unemployment-fuelling-insecurity-in-nigeria-can/

“Is he (Amaechi) trying to indict his boss, President Muhammad Buhari, who is the Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and who is constitutionally saddle with the responsibility to provide security for Nigerians?

“It is a well-known fact that Amaechi is the one who appoints every Commissioner of Police that has been posted to Rivers State since 2015. So, if there is any security failure, he is to blame.”

On the imposition of curfew in the state following attacks on security formations which Amaechi criticized, the governor said the the minister “is happy that members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra are killing innocent policemen, who were protecting lives and property.

Reacting to allegation by the minister that he is acquiring property in the State, the governor said it better to acquire property in Nigeria than to do so in Ghana.

PUNCH