By: Felix Ikpotor
Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has insisted that no amount of blackmail and propaganda from the opposition, All Progressives Congress, APC, will alter the termination of sale of valued state assets to Sahara Energy Limited.
The governor state this on Boxing Day at the Ogbakor Etche Convention held at Okehi.
He said, “No amount of blackmail will change the situation. The courts are there for them to seek redress. Rivers and Lagos States are not the same. No single man can dictate what happens in Rivers State. We have different ethnic groups and culture” .
Wike noted that the termination of sale of valued state assets to Sahara Energy followed due process and called on those aggrieved to approach the court to for redress.
The governor said: “The Rivers State government was not vindictive in terminating the sale of valued state assets to Sahara Energy Limited. One company used three subsidiaries to illegally acquire state assets.
“If there was any vindictiveness, it was on the part of those who used the state government to deny Rivers people their valued state assets.”
The governor stated that the state government resolved to implement the White Paper on the recommendations of the Justice Omereji Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the sale of valued state assets because there is no stay of execution stopping the administration.
He alleged that the godfather of Tonye Cole, a former governor of the state lost at the High Court and Court of Appeal when he tried to stop the implementation of the recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry.
Wike alleged further that the former governor and his business partner illegally bought over state assets with a plot to install Tonye Cole for the purchase of more state assets.
“Rivers people have come to know that only one person bought all their assets. He came and took what belongs to the entire state. Now they want to acquire more,” he said.
It would be recalled that the termination of the sales of valued state assets had generated much reactions with many opining that the termination has some political undertone.
