yesterday, solicited prayers from citizens of the
state against desperate persons who he claimed
were after his life.
Amaechi was suspended from the Peoples'
Democratic Party, PDP, after his fate was
decided during an unscheduled meeting of the
National Working Committee, NWC, of the party
at the residence of the National Chairman of the
party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, which sources say
convened unusually early, at 8.00am.
The meeting came two days ahead of the regular
meeting of the NWC which normally holds on
Wednesdays. It was also three days after
Amaechi beat the odds with his re-election as
chairman of the Nigeria Governors' Forum,
NGF. He had been allegedly opposed by the PDP
Governors' Forum, PDP-GF ahead of the
election.
The governor spoke amidst strong opposition
from his loyalists and some party chieftains over
what they described as the continued reign of
lawlesness in the party.
The governor's suspension was hinged on what
the party described as his refusal to order the
reinstatement of members of the Obio Akpor
Local Government executive who were
suspended from office by the orders of the
Rivers State House of Assembly upon allegations
of corruption raised against the LG executives.
Hours after the suspension was announced, the
party at a press conference said that it had
constituted a committee headed by Mr. Joe
Gadzama, SAN, to probe allegations raised
against Amaechi.
Other members of the committee are PDP
National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon; Inalegwu
Onche, Friday Nwosu, Udorji Amedu, Ola
Kukuyi, Wakil Mohammed, Yusuf Jangwe, Mrs
Bola Doherty, Mr. Tanimu Adamson and Anicho
Okoro as Secretary.
Reacting to his suspension during an interactive
session with youths of the state, Amaechi called
for prayers saying that desperate people who he
claimed did not follow the due process of
hearing from him could also be after his life.
He, however, vowed that God who kept him in
the face of the six-month intrigues that preceded
his inauguration in 2007 would also see him
through. The interactive session with the youths
with the theme: "Consolidating on Rivers of our
Dreams" took place at the Banquet Hall of
Government House, Port Harcourt.
Noting the desperation of his foes, he said: "The
way these people at the federal level are
desperate, they may come after my life. So when
you pray, remember to pray for me to remain
alive.
"Who has power to suspend Obio/Akpor
council? Now you see political witch-hunting; it
is so ridiculous, my party must rise above
political witch-hunting. The Governor did not
suspend Obio/Akpor council, I hope you know.
My power is to dissolve and remit it to the
House of Assembly, but I have not done that yet,
what the Assembly has said is 'we are
investigating corruption' then the party says we
should not investigate corruption, is that fair?".
Amaechi said the NWC issued a press statement
to suspend him without any invitation and fair
hearing. "I was not invited by the National
Working Committee of PDP, I was not given fair
hearing. What I heard was 'why did I refuse to
reinstate the suspended Obio/Akpor Council
executive? Who suspended them?', he asked.
His question received the enthusiastic response
of the youths who chorused: "The Rivers State
House of Assembly."
Again the governor asked, 'who has the power to
investigate Obio/Akpor council executive?". The
Youths again replied: "The State Assembly."
"If they are not guilty, then they will re-instate
them, but if they are guilty, then we will ask for
the dissolution of the council. We have not even
gone half, and the Party (PDP) says re-instate
them. It means that the party likes corruption.
Let the Assembly resume and commence
investigation, let's see what goes on. Whether
there is corruption or not, it is the business of
the Assembly. I have been a Speaker, and I know
the powers of a Speaker and the legislature. I
used it when I was a Speaker", Amaechi said.
"What is the police still doing at the Obio/Akpor
Council building? The court gave an order to the
Police to vacate Obio/Akpor Council, they
disobeyed, and the police are still stationed
there", he said.
"The Federal Government does not care, they
only stationed police at Obio/Akpor council,
even if everybody dies, they don't care. Now the
whole state will be grounded, because the police
have refused to vacate the Obio/Akpor Council
Secretariat. They don't want to know, we are not
important to the federal government, we are not
important at all", Amaechi lamented.
"You know what it took for us to stop militancy
in the state. But only last week, they now
organized militants to return to the streets of
Port Harcourt, is that not shameful. You all
know how the militants spent our money,
defiled our women, killed our parents and young
men. Immediately the militants stopped
protesting, the police said, nobody should
protest again", Amaechi stated.
"Internal democracy is important in our party,
they fought me with everything, and I still won
the Nigeria Governors' Forum election, what
should they do? They should have joined me to
thank God. Because what it means is that God
has spoken. It happened when I was in Ghana, I
fasted and prayed for six months, 6am to 6pm,
and God made me Governor.
This may be to the chagrin of the opposition who
are hopeful of getting another score over the
PDP, but Amaechi has reiterated his
commitment to the PDP.
"I will not leave the PDP. I will go to court. The
plane (aircraft) issue is same politics, pure
politics. For one year plus, a minister refused to
sign import permit. I'm sure you are aware of
the House of Representatives Committee report
on the plane issue."
On the NGF election, Governor Amaechi said:
"You will see it on the internet when the
Governors were voting, all the governors were
there and you will also see the counting. We
(Governors) agreed to vote, and all the governors
voted, so any governor who said he didn't vote is
lying against the nation because all of us are on
oath to govern properly. So we should not lie,
every governor voted, you will see the video.
"If we leaders of Nigeria today are refusing to
accept the results of a properly organized
election supervised by the Director-General of
the Governors' Forum, and somebody brought a
paper that was signed in April. If you check that
list, it was signed in April and you brought it on
May 24 after the Governors have finished voting
their chairman into office; that list is not part of
our election. There is a rumour that they want to
go to court to stop me as NGF chairman. We are
ready to meet them in court but they should not
go through the backdoor to get an order,"
Amaechi said.
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