Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi has accused his successor Nyesom Wike of boasting that he has influence on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, and the judiciary.
He stated that Wike continued to forge more documents against him.
Amaechi yesterday in an online statement by his media office said Wike wanted to use the forged documents to persecute and prosecute him in court.
Wike is Amaechi’s former Chief of Staff and the director-general of his re-election campaign organisation in 2011.
The minister said: “In the past couple of days, Wike has been telling anyone who cares to listen, bragging that he will certainly get a conviction, a judgment against Amaechi in the law courts on spurious charges of corruption, using his forged documents because he (Wike) is in control of the judiciary at the state and national levels.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state that Wike has been boasting that he has the judges in the Rivers State judiciary in his pocket, that he is in full control and that the Rivers State judiciary would always give him any judgment he wants against Amaechi.
“Furthermore, Wike is bragging that the CJN is his ‘main man’ that would readily and easily assist him get any judgment he wants against Amaechi at the apex court, using his contorted documents.
“Wike is also telling anyone who cares to listen that the Supreme Court (Justices) and judges generally are not happy with Amaechi and so they would easily convict him with any forged document he presents in court. Power-drunk Wike is using the recent visit of the CJN to Rivers State as his bragging right to prove his ‘extreme’ closeness to the CJN.
“Nigerians would recall that only a few days back, Livingstone Wechie, the young man Wike used to accuse Amaechi of corruption and write false and frivolous petitions to the National Assembly, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) etc., confessed in a live television programme and in a statement he also circulated to the media, that all the documents he used to wrongfully portray Amaechi as corrupt when he governed Rivers State, were phonies, forged documents given to him by Wike’s Rivers State Government House.
“Wechie also admitted, like we have always said, that the forged documents were used as the template and basis for the Justice Omereji-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry, a panel Wike set up early in his administration to witch-hunt, malign, vilify and persecute Amaechi.”
Replying the transport minister, governor Wike in a statement by his media aide, Mr Simeon Nwakaudu, said: “Our attention has been drawn to a reckless statement credited to Amaechi to the effect that Governor Wike is forging documents to secure his conviction in a court of law.
This allegation is unfounded, baseless and a figment of the imagination of the former governor. “Amaechi also went ahead to falsely allege that Wike bragged that he has the judiciary in the state and at the federal level in his pocket to secure his conviction on charges of corruption.
This is another false allegation, merely concocted by the former governor to distract attention from the crimes he committed against Rivers people, by diverting their resources. “We are not surprised by Amaechi’s antics to blackmail the judiciary. Ever since the Supreme Court victory that validated the election of Wike, Amaechi has never failed to malign the judiciary. Governor Wike is a law abiding citizen, who believes in the rule of law. That is why he has followed due process in tackling the issue of high level corruption against the Minister of Transportation. “We have very credible documents to prove the mass corrupt acts of the former governor against the good people of Rivers State. We also saw a reckless post by Amaechi’s associate, Mr Igo Aguma trying to denigrate the judiciary.
This is most unfortunate. “Amaechi’s sponsorship of Wechie will not change the facts that are known to all Nigerians. All documents tendered at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry that investigated the Sale of Valued Assets of the State by the Amaechi administration are genuine.” Same pattern, the same blatant distorted and forged documents, same old concocted stories of corruption allegations against Amaechi told with different twists. “Nigerians will not forget in a hurry how Wike, hurriedly called a suspicious late night press conference to lie that the over $43million found by EFCC in a luxury apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos and the apartment belongs to Amaechi.”