Amaechi’s wife: How we moved from one house to the other before my husband’s victory at supreme court

Judith Amaechi, wife of Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, says her life was in danger before the supreme court pronounced her husband governor.

Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo denied Amaechi from contesting the 2007 governorship election after a “K-leg theory” was propounded.

The party then gave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket to Celestine Omehia who eventually won the election but was later sacked by the supreme court.

In an interview with The Nation, the minister’s wife said she and her children moved from house to house when her husband was denied the Rivers state governorship ticket.

Judith said she knew that God would vindicate her husband in the end.

She said it was a “fine moment” when the apex court ruled in the favour of her husband.

“I did not see anything wrong with the later reconciliation. People were then struggling for power and they might have gone to the extreme. We never went to the extreme,” Judith said.

“I knew that God would certainly vindicate us and give us victory. I will rather make heaven than sit back here and dwell on the wickedness that happened. I will never be part of wickedness.

“That is one moment I really do not always like to remember, but in all, God is faithful. To be very honest, it was a fine moment because it just came suddenly and I could not believe that we were in that position.

“I and my children were in one room and we were separated from him (Amaechi) for so long and we were moving from one house to another. He was in Ghana, while the children and I stayed in three overseas countries.

“We had horrifying experiences. The first nasty experience we had was losing all our passports and my bag at Atlanta. I felt somebody deliberated picked up the bag, because they later saw the person on Closed Circuit Television (CCTV).

“At the Atlanta airport, I told God to have mercy on us. At every moment, I could see the glory and the hand of God. When our passports got lost, it was normal for them to ask us to go back and re-organise, but they allowed us.

“We reported to the immigration and they allowed us to continue our journey because we had not reached our destination in the United States of America.”

Judith added that she and her husband do not hold anything against Peter Odili, former governor of Rivers, and his family.

“To be very honest, we have never held anything against the Odilis. My husband and I have always seen them as our parents. I really do not know their own opinion,” she said.

“One of my children, who is taking the course-line of Dr. Odili (medicine), would always say that he was inspired by the Odilis, but I know that sometimes, people can read meanings to things. My husband is always having respect for the Odilis.”