Former Rivers State Commissioners and Local Government chairmen have refuted the statement by the state Governor Nyesom Wike that they paid between N2 million and N3 million monthly to wife of Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, Judith, when her husband held sway as governor of the state.
The council chairmen and commissioners, in a statement co-signed on their behalf by Mr. Ojukaye Flag Amachree, a former Chairman Asari-Toru Local Government Area and Fred Mbombo-Igwe, a former Commissioner of Sports, in the state, said the claim that they paid money monthly to Mrs. Amaechi was false.
Governor Wike had recently in a media programme alleged that council chairmen and commissioners in the state under Amaechi, were made to pay between N2 million and N3 million monthly to Mrs. Amaechi when she was First Lady.
Amaechi had tackled Governor Wike over the allegation threatening to expose Wike’s wife.
The chairmen and commissioners, who served in Amaechi’s government, insisted that there was no time Mrs. Amaechi demanded or was paid money by them, urging the public to disregard the allegation.
Their statement read in part ” The attention of former Chairmen of Local Government Councils and Commissioners in Rivers State during the administration of former Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi have been drawn to a recent media interview granted by current governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, where Wike falsely accused Dame Judith Amaechi, the wife of our boss of extorting and collecting monthly, between Two and Three Million Naira from Commissioners and Local Government Council chairmen respectively, while her husband was the State governor.
“Realising the magnitude and gravity of this allegation, the Council Chairmen and Commissioners deem it necessary to make this public clarification in the interest of our teeming supporters and Rivers people.”
They stressed “We want to state that no Council Chairman either individually or as a group of chairmen or State Commissioners were told, coerced, intimidated or persuaded to pay any money to the wife of the former Governor. And no money was given to her”.
The former officials asked Governor Wike to apologise to Mrs. Amaechi reiterating that there was no truth in the allegation against the former First Lady.