Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Nyesom Wike, has accused the vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Rotimi Amaechi, of boasting that he removed two sons of the South-South, former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, from their positions, and said that is why he cannot win the zone.
Speaking at his monthly media chat in Abuja on Tuesday, Wike said Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers State, also did nothing for the zone as minister of transportation.
Wike said Amaechi had claimed that history would remember him as the director general of a party’s campaign council that removed a sitting president.
“Who was that sitting president? Jonathan. From where? South-South. A man from South-South boasted he removed a sitting president who is from South-South. You think the South-South people have forgotten that?” he asked.
Wike said Amaechi also boasted that he “masterminded the removal” of Onnoghen, who he said also comes from the South-South.
The minister then turned to Amaechi’s record in the Federal Executive Council. He pointed to the ports in Rivers, Calabar and Warri and said nothing had been done in the zone.
“Now, the same man could not mastermind anything to help the South-South by making the ports to work. What has he now attracted to the South-South, to Rivers State, to make them then let us support him?” Wike asked.
He also questioned the standing of the ADC, which he said was being treated as a major party before it had been tested at the polls.
“How is it a major party? Have they won one councillorship?” he asked.
Wike said he knew the party’s strategy and that it would fail in the region.
“Nobody can cause crisis in the South-South. We know their strategy. And I can tell them it will not work,” he said.
He said Amaechi had left out part of his own record when he spoke of how history would judge him.
“But he didn’t tell Nigerians that history will also remember him as a DG who removed a sitting president, but who couldn’t get support from his state. He did not say that one,” Wike said.
