Amaechi's 8 Yrs Of Atrocities Government House Looting: One Too Many PDP Urges Gov Wike To Recover Stolen Items, Prosecute Perpetrators By Chris Konkwo When the immediate past Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi announced in his maiden meeting with stakeholders on assumption of office in 2007 that after his tenure, he would run away, warning Rivers people not to contemplate voting for him for a second term, not many took him seriously. But he was rather prophetic. No sooner has he left office than his atrocious activities while in office began to dawn on even his erstwhile allies and supporters that the State had been milked dry and the Capital City, Port Harcourt, the Garden City, so called because of its aesthetic beauty has been turned into a Garbage City.

But the most astonishing is the looting of the Government House beginning from the office of the Governor where the executive chairs, the rugs, the State emblem, fans and electronic gadgets (television and radio sets) were all carted away under the watchful eyes of Rotimi Amaechi. All the furniture in the Government House executive chamber were also carted away. As it was in the Governor's office, so it was in all the offices of the Secretary to the State Government and the State Commissioners. Consequently, the State Governor, Chief Barr Nyesom Wike after conducting newsmen round the vandalized offices announced that in the interim, he will be operating from his Port Harcourt residence hoping that the vandalized offices will be refurbished within three months. However, government activities will continue to hold in Government House. Besides vandalizing the Government House, former Governor Amaechi also left a mind-buggling debt of over N15 billion for the new administration aside the unpaid salaries, allowances and pensions of civil servants and retired public officers. If analyzed against Amaechi's boasting that he would never hand over to the incumbent Governor, swearing with his life, one can rightly reason that Amaechi himself did the looting or ordered the shameful act, all in an attempt to take sail out of the wings of the Nyesom Wike-led government so that it either fails to fly or crashes while flying. Before the last onslaught of Amaechi, the maverick Ubima born politician had left no one in doubt about his mindset of leaving behind a bankrupt economy and hunger stricken masses as his legacy. In pursuit of this evil agenda, Amaechi stylishly induced crisis in the State House of Assembly in July 2013 which led to the closure of the hallowed chambers till he left office on May 29, 2015. It's unheard of, in the political history of the State that a State House of Assembly democratically elected could be closed down for two years and its functions usurped by the State Chief Executive, a possible feature of a military dictatorship. While this lasted, all the laws and acts, amendments and reviews needed to prosecute his actions and satisfy his heart desires were hatched, signed and implemented from Amaechi's bedroom using his selected rubber-stamp lawmakers, and surrogates to give them official outlook. As it stands, nobody except Amaechi himself knows the existing and extant laws in Rivers State. To ensure he is neither queried nor sued for explanations like an emperor he was, Amaechi closed down the State judiciary for one full year. Hiding under the cover of an alleged infringement of his official right to appoint the State acting Chief Judge by the National Judicial Council (NJC), Amaechi closed down the judiciary. While the judiciary workers were at home, Amaechi gleefully paid their salaries and allowances as at when due yet those other civil servants dutifully doing their jobs were ignored despite their persistent cries and lamentation. At the departure of Amaechi, Civil Servants were being owed two to three months salary arrears and the pensioners an upwards of six months. A directive by the leadership of the National Union of Judiciary Workers to the State Judiciary Workers to resume work elicited the bombing of sections of the State High Courts in Isiokpo, Port Harcourt and Omoku with explosives that left the Isiokpo High Court building badly damaged by yet to be identified persons. The immediate past administration of Amaechi was accused of having a hand in the ugly incident. Infrastructurally, the State was left as though there was no government in place as potholes took over the major streets of Port Harcourt with abandoned projects everywhere, the chief of which is the much talked about Monorail which Amaechi so boasted about and which gulped over N25 billion. As if these were not enough acts of criminality and irresponsibility, Amaechi, sorry, Dakuku Peterside, Amaechi's stooge after losing the governorship election to the PDP, and precisely three days to vacate office proceeded to conduct an unpopular and widely condemned and boycotted Local Government Council elections which according to him cost over N4.6 billion. He officially gave the so-called elected council chairmen a toga of illegality by swearing them in, in the night preceding his exit. Analysts believe the only reason for the purported council election was to cover up all the monies Amaechi stupendously spent on the ill-conceived fight to push President Goodluck Jonathan out of office and sponsoring the All Progressives Congress, APC 2015 election campaigns. Still not satisfied with all these irresponsible acts to plunge the State into crisis, Amaechi embarked on last minute employment of all manner of people into certain parastatals of government including over 400 academic and non-academic staff into the State Polytechnic, Bori among others. The idea behind all this is to set these newly recruited staffers against the new government should they be sacked as could be attested by Amaechi's pronouncement while swearing in the purported council chairmen that they should resist the attempt by anybody to want to dissolve them. Also as a parting gift to the Rivers people was a make-shift panel of enquiry into the alleged politically motivated killings in some parts of the State before, during and after the 2015 elections in the State which is reminiscent of a similar panel of enquiry he set up when he took over the reins of power in 2007 to indict perceived political enemies. The panel of enquiry met and submitted its findings in less than 10 days. Though Amaechi did not have the opportunity to make public the findings and recommendations of the panel, the contents are still suspect. To crown all this, and to deserve a pride of place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most unpopular Chief Executive of Rivers State since its creation in 1967, two years after he was born, Amaechi made sure that his successor, former ally and brother-turned enemy, Chief Barr. Nyesom Wike inherited an empty Government House. Meanwhile, the Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rivers State chapter, Prince Felix Obuah, has expressed grave concern over the deplorable condition of the Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt and liaison offices in Abuja, Lagos and other places, following monumental looting and outright mismanagement of resources and facilities by the out-gone Amaechi administration, calling on the new Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike to do everything possible to recover the loot. Apparently angered by the unwarranted raid by Rotimi Amaechi and officials of his administration of these public facilities, the PDP Chairman, Prince Felix Obuah charged Governor Wike to stop at nothing but to employ all means at his disposal to ensure that the burgled items are recovered while all those who perpetrated such act are brought to book accordingly. The PDP Chairman noted that the ugly development was responsible for the delay in the use of the Government House by the new Governor and his aides, stressing that with the level of looting and damage witnessed in all offices, halls, rooms and the entire premises of the Government House, one is not sure that the place can be ready for use in the next three months. Prince Obuah regretted that all official vehicles of government used by Amaechi and his aides in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja etc are either stolen or vandalized. He wondered why the former Governor Amaechi, former Information Commissioner, Ibim Semenitari, David Iyofor and Mr. Eze Chukwuemeka Eze are not ashamed of such disgraceful, embarrassing and criminal acts, but to issue statements denying what is evident, as a visit to the Government House leaves no one in doubt of the fact of the incident, saying rather than giving explanations and tendering apology to Rivers people and Nigerians for the high level pillage and destructions carried out at the Government House by former Governor Amaechi, his aides and the APC leaders, Ibim, David Iyofor and Eze who obviously cannot pretend not to be aware of the development are making claims they cannot justify. The PDP said it is not happy that the people of the State have been thrown into this pathetic situation when they do not deserve it, considering the huge resources that have been available to the out-gone Governor Amaechi, meant for the development of the State and empowerment of the people, regretting that rather than appropriating the resources judiciously and transparently, Amaechi and the APC leaders siphoned the money for personal use, leaving the State with phony and uncompleted projects most of which the contractors are nowhere to be found. The PDP believes that the looted items, even though it is aware that many of them had been sold off by the looters, can be found if there is a dyed-in-the wool effort aimed at recovering them by the Governor and the law enforcement agents. The PDP Chairman again called on the Governor to ensure that anyone responsible for the looting of government properties in Rivers State Government House, liaison offices in Lagos, Abuja and other places be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others, saying the PDP Government in the State is determined to provide transparent and people-oriented government. Source: National Network