Rivers crisis: Wike gives Amaechi condition for peace

 

The supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, on Sunday gave the Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi a condition for peace and before the structure of the Peoples Democratic Party could be returned to the governor. 

Wike said if Amaechi desired the state PDP structure, the governor should hand over his office to Mr.

Celestine Omehia, who was at the helm of affairs in the state before the October 2007 court ruling, which removed him from office.

The minister spoke during the inauguration of the chapter executives of the Grassroots Development Initiative in the Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area.

He maintained that the state PDP was ready to hand over its structure to the governor if he was ready to surrender his position to Omehia.

Wike said, “As far as the PDP structure in Rivers State is concerned, nobody gave us any PDP structure. We fought for our mandate and we won in court.

“If they say that they should take the structure from us after the court had given judgment, therefore, the PDP should also take the governorship in 2007 and return it to the man who was serving as governor at that time.

“Our own condition is this: we will surrender the party structure since he says he will no longer obey court judgement. He should also surrender the court judgement of 2007. If you (Amaechi) do that, then we would also surrender the court judgment that brought Felix Obuah.

“We are telling the PDP national leadership that our own condition is this; we are willing to make peace. We are willing to surrender the party structure, if he (Amaechi) would also surrender that mandate that the court gave in 2007. He should give it back to the man who had that mandate.”

Reacting, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha, described Wike’s condition to Amaechi as unreasonable, maintaining that the current situation in the state had nothing to do with the position of the governor.

Okocha pointed out that rather than come to the state to campaign for President Jonathan and abuse Amaechi, the minister should face the challenges facing the nation’s educational sector and bring in ideas that could improve the sector.

He stated that Wike had shown that the only way he could sustain his position as a minister was to continue to attack Amaechi, whom he (Wike) perceived to be Jonathan’s enemy.

Okocha said, “What he is portraying is the saying that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. Let him bring good ideas to the educational sector. The only thing he is doing to sustain his stay in the ministry is to continue to abuse Amaechi.

“Wike is just a beneficiary of undeserved goodwill. He should be able to tell the people what the President has done while campaigning for him here in Rivers State and stop abusing Amaechi who has done so much for him.”