Again, Rotimi Amaechi in the spotlight

By  Maxi Gogo

The media has recently been flooded with reports, advertorials and all sorts about corruption in Rivers State, accusing former governor, Chibuike Amaechi of fraud, unlawful enrichment and conversion of state funds apparently in a bid to force the hands of President Muhammadu Buhari against Amaechi whose immense support and contributions towards the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last presidential elections cannot be over-emphasized.

While there has been a robust defense by the Amaechi camp on the issues raised, many opposed to the former governor mostly believed to be of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Rivers State have insisted on putting Amaechi in the spotlight with the smear of corruption.

In view of Amaechi’s achievements in Rivers State as governor, it seems awkward that people from his own state would come up with such spurious allegations, though clearly instigated by his political enemies. The expanded and reconstructed roads, flyovers and bridges, the revamped education sector which was taken over from Local Government authorities to raise the standards, the establishment of a proper Agriculture sector with the Songhai farm and other productive farms across the state, a total overhaul of the State’s healthcare sector with functional Primary health centres in all LGAs, power generation particularly the decentralization of power distribution points with the construction of various power sub-stations. All these and more they seem to have forgotten.

A man with such purpose for the growth and development of his state and people wouldn’t do a sudden 360 degrees if he had the chance to do it already within his first seven years of service or even while he served as Speaker of the State House of Assembly for two tenures.

His transparency was also seen in the constant stakeholders’ accountability meetings, town hall meetings where he conferred and answered questions from the people directly and in their domains, as well as acting on feedback generated from followers and supporters on social media as regards issues of the state.

Being the closest link from Rivers State to the Presidency, Amaechi who consistently spoke up and stood against injustice meted out to the state by the erstwhile Goodluck Jonathan administration should indeed be hailed and not painted as the villain. One of such injustices was the ceding of Oil Wells from Rivers State to other neighbouring states, thereby directly dwindling the resources and revenue due to the State. As chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Amaechi also stood against irregularities in governance and was never on the side of one political party against another, but for one Nigeria and a better nation; he brought the governors together and acted in one accord.

Now let’s review the allegations brought against this man, the response and why we the people and indeed the presidency should strive to be on the right path no matter how loud the opposition wails.

The desperate move by the opposition to tarnish Amaechi’s image and place him out of favour with the federal government he helped installed, pushed his accusers to draw hasty, uninformed and jaundiced conclusions.

On the supposed fraudulent sale of power projects and conversion of its proceeds, the so called Integrity Group only outlined the sale and failed to do its home work on the proceeds which subsequently has since been captured in the 2014 Appropriation Law of the State as one of the sources of revenue to fund the 2014 budget. This inclusion was explained in the reply signed by former Secretary to the Rivers State Government, George Feyii and former Commissioner of Finance, Chamberlain Peterside.

It read in part “…the sale of this equity (70%) was particularly informed by the following considerations: the federal government had commenced a privatization process to unbundle the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to drive efficiency, … Need to engender efficiency in the management of the power assets so that its benefits could be felt by the generality of the people of Rivers State, … the state government does not have the requisite manpower to manage the facilities, and … the need to augment revenue in the face of dwindling federal allocation to the state.”

Another unverified and distorted claim by the accusers was that funds were transferred from the power assets sale proceeds accounts with Access Bank Plc to the accounts of three private companies calling it ‘a glaring case of stealing…’ Meanwhile the response by Amaechi’s people clarifies that, “the companies that were erroneously portrayed as fronts for looting the funds were actually those that bought the US Dollars and made remittances of Naira equivalents into the Rivers State Revenue Account with Zenith Bank.”

Firstly, “Payments of the assets were made in several tranches between 2012 and 2014; All proceeds of the sale made in US Dollars were lodged in the Rivers State Power Assets Sale Account with Access Bank; the USD proceeds were sold to willing buyers at a rate higher than the prevailing CBN rates at the time, and the Naira equivalent lodged by the buyers into the Rivers state revenue account at Zenith Bank.”

The response also explained that the funds were used alongside others from other revenue sources to finance various government projects and activities and clearly attached a statement of account of the State for the relevant period as proof.

Other rumours that such entities like RISONPALM, SUPABOD (now SPAR) AND OLYMPIA HOTEL (Radisson Blu Olympia) were sold by the Amaechi administration has also been debunked. These previously moribund entities were leased or concessioned but never sold, and would revert to the state government at the end of the lease period.

Also, the claim that the Amaechi administration kept mum over the failure of Clinotech Diagnostics to fulfill its part on the Public Private Partnership it signed with the Rivers State Government for the building and operation of a mega Specialist Hospital in Port Harcourt is totally false.

The first blunder by the petitioners is referring to Clinotech as a separate entity from Clinoriv. The government signed a MoU with Clinotech, not Clinoriv. Clinoriv was only coined to reflect the joint venture. The second mistake was claiming that the former governor awarded a fresh contract to Clinotech on the same project. This is wrong as the contract was not awarded twice. The State Executive Council simply suspended the 60% to 40% joint venture between Clinotech and the State Government and awarded it as a turnkey contract to Clinotech with direct (100%) funding by the government. However, on Clinotech’s failure to keep the agreement, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, then Governor reported Harrison Ofiyai, CEO of Clinotech to the then Commissioner of Police alleging a case of breach of contract and fraudulent diversion of funds. The police conducted an investigation on the matter and came up with a report.

Following the failure of the project, the Rivers State Government according to the response by Amaechi’s camp “executed a memo of Agreement on May 9, 2014 with VMS-WILLEMEN consortium for the completion of the Justice Adolphus Karibi Whyte Hospital on a build, Operate and Transfer basis.”

On the third allegation of unlawful enrichment of Messers Collect (Nig) Limited, it is now clear that the tenure of Skye bank PLC as revenue consultant ended in December 2014 and Collect Solutions Limited was appointed as the new consultants with a mandate to further increase the monthly revenue from N7.5b monthly where Skye Bank got it to from the average of N2.5b when Amaechi became governor.

According to the response by the Amaechi team, “Appointment of revenue consultants is within the powers of the state government and Amaechi’s administration only exercised that power in appointing Collect solutions Limited. Having been duly appointed, the consulting company is entitled to its remuneration.”

Those petitioners and their sponsors trying to tarnish Amaechi’s image should have a rethink and desist from the lowly act, but rather hold the current Wike administration in Rivers State to account. Yes, for Governor Wike to account for all the billions of naira collected by his administration since May 29, including the N30billion loan he collected within 30 days in office. For Wike to account to the people of Rivers State just like former governor Amaechi did when he was in office. We must promote excellence in Rivers State typified by former Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. This distraction of trying to pull Amaechi down and erase his lasting laudable legacies in Rivers State cannot and will not fly.

Gogo is the Secretary-General of Rivers Peoples’ Forum(RPF).

@RiversForum