BusinessDay 22 Oct 2017

Sunday 22 October 2017
C002D5556
SUNDAY
BD
27
Perspective
When Wike hosted editors the 2nd time…
IGNATIUS CHUKWU
Governor Nyesom
Wike of Rivers State
has made it clear that
his administration
was not competing
with anybody and any state.
He told Editors that came for
the 2017 conference that Rivers
State was marching ahead
with an avalanche of project execution
where most other states
were struggling with salaries.
Wike played host again to
13th Nigerian Guild of Editors
(NGE) after the 2015 hosting,
saying it was too huge an opportunity
for an opposition government
to pass up. He said editors
were in the best position to tell
the world the truth about his
administrations achievements
and the security situation in the
oil state.
At the opening ceremony of
the 2017 Association of Nigerian
Editors Conference (ANEC)
in Port Harcourt, Wike said he
had many projects to show to
his guests; “When you undertake
the tour, you will see the
projects we’ve accomplished
across the different priority
areas, particularly, on road infrastructure,
healthcare, education
and security. You will see that
we have since reconstructed
almost all the bad roads in Port
ernment Area roads we have
either completed or are ongoing.
For instance, you will see completed
or ongoing road projects
in Abua/Odual, Akuku Toru
Andoni, Etche, Ikwerre, OkrikaObio/Akpor,
Emohua, Eleme,
Tai, Gokana and Khana Local
Government Areas of the State.
You will further see our efforts
in healthcare delivery. You will
see that we have comprehensively
reconstructed general
Harcourt city, including the ones
in Diobu, mile one to mile three,
Port Harcourt Township, old and
new Government Reservation
Areas, Harold Wilson Drive,
Borokiri, D/Line, Oro-Worokwo,
Ogbunabali, Nkporgu, Dr. Peter
Odili road and other neighbourhoods
of the State capital.”
Mentioning others, he said;
“You will also see the intra,
inter-city and inter-local govhospitals
in Abua, Nchia, Isiokpo,
Rumuigbo, Abonnema, Bodo
city, Opobo, Eberi-Omuma, Ngo,
Emohua, Buguma and Okrika
towns and communities across
the State.”
He said he had remobilised
contractors to work on the
‘mother and child hospital’ and
three of the four regional hospitals
started and abandoned
by the previous administration.
“You will also see several other
projects that are already in use,
including the Port Harcourt
ultra-modern Pleasure Park,
the Okrika jetty, the Ecumenical
Centre, and the Port Harcourt
NBA Law Centre complex.
Again, you will also notice that
we have initiated some new
projects you did not see during
your first visit, including
the construction of internal
roads and land reclamation in
Emohua, Ikwerre, Asari Toru,
Okirika, Degema Local Government
Areas and the renovation
of 185 basic education schools
across the State.”
He said; “It is important to
emphasise that we are not competing
with anybody or any
other State for laurels or for
anything. We are simply doing
our job as mandated by the
good people of Rivers State and
we are both grateful and encouraged
by the outpourings of
support and affection from our
people. Furthermore, we are in
a democracy and so we do fully
acknowledge and respect the
right of the opposition to criticize
us as much as they can, but this
right ought to be exercised in
good faith and with all sense of
responsibility. However, instead
of projecting their relevance, if
any, with alternative policies
and programmes, the political
opposition continues to live
in denial of our achievements
within two years as against the
complete mess they left behind
after being in power for eight
unbroken years.”
He criticised his opponents
saying when they were on seat,
many things including the judiciary
crumbled. “For goodness
sake, how do we compare? They
viciously closed down the courts
for no good reason and subjected
every one of us in Rivers State to
suffer the consequences of their
obnoxious action for nearly two
years.”
He went on: “We are all aware
that even in the height of militancy
by Niger Delta youths,
not even a single oil facility
was attacked, occupied or shut
down in Rivers State because of
the measures we put in place in
conjunction with the security
agencies to ensure security for
all the vital national economic
assets located in the State. We
believe that the media will do
Rivers people a lot of good, if
they hold every public office
holder, including those at the
Federal level to the same levels
of scrutiny accountability.”
He said the media in the
state always goes into what he
called muffled tones even when
the political opposition goes to
the extremity of using national
institutions to undermine the
authority of State Government,
sabotage their security architecture,
assault the national electoral
system and intimidate
the judiciary for self-seeking
partisan goals. From the days of
Mbu Mbu as commissioner of
police, sitting governors in the
state have always accused the
police of carrying out hostile actions
against the interest of the
state and the media had always
reported it.
Wike however charged: “How
else can we situate the active
and virulent involvement of the
Nigerian Police in rigging the legislative
re-run elections that took
place in the State in March and
December 2016 in favour of the
opposition All Peoples Congress?
Is it not offensively true that the
Nigerian police has refused to investigate
and prosecute those that
were caught and arrested in the
D/Line area of Port Harcourt for
printing fake ballot papers with
INEC’s authentic serial numbers
to be used for the December 2016
re-run elections?’
He pursued: “Similarly, why
has the Federal Government
refused to prosecute the State
Commander of the Special Anti-
Robbery Squad (SARS), Mr. Akin
Fakorede, who was caught on tape
and seen on national television
brutalising an electoral officer at
a collation centre in furtherance
of his partisan commitment to
deliver fake results to the candidates
of the All Progress Congress
in the December 2016 rerun
elections? How can we accept
the situation where an election
tribunal discarded authentic results
declared by the Independent
National Electoral Commission,
which is lawfully responsible for
the management of elections, and
in its place accepted fake results
from the credibility-challenged
Nigerian Police as the basis to
provocatively award electoral
victories to candidates of the All
peoples Congress.’
Wike has continued to accuse
the former SARS boss of
offences. “Unassailable facts
have just emerged about how
SARS under Akin Fakorode has
become an organize criminal
robbery gang in the State, yet
the Inspector General of Police
would simply dismiss such serious
allegations with a wave of
the hand because the victims
are Rivers people who are not
entitled do justice. 35. We do
believe that these recurrent acts
of impunity, political intimidation,
economic sabotage, state
repression, election rigging, and
abuse of power are wrongs not
only against Rivers State; they
are wrongs against the entire
country.”
The president of the Guild,
Funke Egbomode, said Rivers
State was a good place for conferences
and that no amount
of propaganda would change
that view