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Tag: Amaechi

  • Amaechi: security agencies’ll arrest troublemakers

    Amaechi: security agencies’ll arrest troublemakers

    Transportation Minister Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has said law enforcement agencies will deal with those who break the Electoral Act during the December 10 legislative rerun in Rivers State.

    Speaking during the Freedom Thanksgiving Service in honour of Ojukaye Flag Amachree at Buguma town in Asari Toru Local Government, the minister, who was represented by All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Rivers Southeast, Senator Magnus Abe, said he was aware of threats by some people to deal with electoral officials and intimidate the public from performing their civic duties.

    He said law enforcement agents would arrest anybody who foments trouble.

    Amaechi cautioned law enforcement agents, who he said might allow themselves to be financially induced.

    The minister noted that such officers were enemies of the state and the constitution.

    He said: “Any policeman who refuses to carry out his constitutional duties because of anything whatsoever, whether by inducement or threat, is a traitor to the constitution of Nigeria.”

    The minister said he was aware that Governor Nyesom Wike had been encouraging his supporters to break the law and resist arrest.

    Amaechi said: “It is the job of the law enforcement agents to arrest those who do not respect the law. So, no governor can give you immunity from arrest. Let Wike send his brothers to go to the road and break the law. When the police come to arrest them, let them resist arrest. When he has done that, then we will know that he has the power to stop the police from arresting criminals when they break the law.

    “People who break the law before, during and after the elections will be arrested. People who are members of PDP and APC who break the law will be arrested.”

    Amachree thanked those who prayed for his release, particularly Amaechi.

    The APC chief said he was incarcerated for the crime he did not commit because of his support and loyalty to the party.

  • RIVERS RE-RUN: We’ll match Wike threat for threat, Amaechi vows

    RIVERS RE-RUN: We’ll match Wike threat for threat, Amaechi vows

    The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, yesterday vowed to resist any form of intimidation and threat from any quarters in the December 10 Rivers rerun.

    He promised the All Progressive Congress (APC) will match whatever antics and strategies deployed by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Nyesom Wike during the exercise.

    He also said all candidates of the APC must win at all costs, urging supporters never to succumb to the threats and intimidation of Wike.

    The former Rivers governor said the APC will not take security for granted like it did in previous elections in the state.

    Wike, according to him, is a thug who is not fit for governance.

    Amaechi spoke at a rally in Bera in Gokana local government area, the hometown of APC Rivers South East Senatorial candidate, Magnus Abe.

    He said the APC cannot afford to lose any seat in the senatorial district, especially the four Ogoni councils of Khana, Gokana, Eleme and Tai.

    Amaechi said: “If there is one place APC that shouldn’t campaign, it is Ogoniland but Wike said he must win here.

    “It is not as if he is God. Only God can say that but since he is not God, he will fail.

    “Wike can never be God. The battle is not in Ogoniland but in the Ikwerre and Ahoada axis.

    “So he had better forget here (Ogoniland). He said he will deploy everything.

    “Anything he wants to deploy let him deploy, we will deploy our own.”

    Charging APC supporters to square up to Wike and the PDP, Amaechi said: “Do not behave like democrats who went to sleep. Come out and vote.

    “The past elections, we took security for granted. This time, we will not take security for granted.

    “If Wike likes, let him come out. At all times he had come out I used to ask does this man remember that he is a governor?

    “It is only a thug that can stand in front of a Judge’s gate to be struggling with security men, only a thug.

    “A governor will go back to his house and call the President. When SSS invaded the presidential lounge of Akwa Ibom state government, what the governor did was to call the President.

    “Instead of Wike to call the President, he was struggling with security men.

    “In all the fight I had with the federal government under former President Jonathan, nobody saw me physically battling with anybody.

    “When I became governor, there were many people appointed by Dr. Peter Odili.

    “There were so many businesses by Odili people. I didn’t stop any. Wike is indeed a thug, not a governor.

    “He doesn’t know what it takes to govern. The only way to show him that is in this election.

    “After this election, he will not come this way again.”

    He condemned the appointments of people with questionable character, including alleged cultists and killers into leadership positions across the state, stating they will be answerable to God one day.

    “I will urge all of you if anybody threaten you, please threaten back because all Wike does is to come on the radio and you are scared.

    “What are you scared of? ‘Oh they are rigging, oh I will you kill John,‘ ‘I will kill you this and that’. He will kill nobody,

    “Wike ran away when armed robbers came to attack him at Garrison sometimes back, meaning that he loves his life. He loves live and is killing people.”

    Speaking on behalf of all the candidates in the senatorial district, Abe noted that the APC government at the federal level has favoured the people of Ogoni in no small measure.

    He pointed out the area has been seeking and demanding without results since creation of the state nearly 50 years ago.

    In the shortest period APC assumed office, Abe said Ogoniland has been favoured, asking voters to reciprocate the gestures.

  • Sagay to Justices: leave Amaechi, Onu out of your case

    Sagay to Justices: leave Amaechi, Onu out of your case

    Eminent legal scholar Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN) yesterday advised Supreme Court Justices under probe for corruption to defend themselves in the court, instead of diverting attention to an alleged bribery by Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi.

    He described Supreme Court Justice, Inyang Okoro’s and Sylvesta Ngwuta’s call for Amaechi’s resignation as improper and urged the minister to ignore it.

    Sagay said the allegation of attempted inducement by the minister had no bearing with the justices’ arrest and subsequent charges before a court of competent jurisdiction.

     The retired university don said the statements credited to Justices Ngwuta and Okoro smacked of wrong attribution, adding that it was a calculated attempt to bring the minister down and deny the Federal Government the services of a bright member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

    Sagay, however, clarified that he decided to air his opinion in his personal capacity and not as the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption.

    He observed that certain people had always indulged in pulling down fellow human beings in a bid to divert attention from the matter of the moment.

    Sagay told reporters in Lagos that the sudden narrative on Amaechi was consistent with the objectives and interests of the chief promoters of judicial corruption.

    He said the outburst by the Justices was surprising because it was totally unrelated to be raids of their premises, their arrest and subsequent charges before the courts.

    Sagay said: “Men of that status should not indulge in such diversionary activities in the midst of grave and ominous charges facing them.  I would have thought that they would use the time at their disposal to prepare their defences against the serious charges they are facing.”

     The legal luminary added: “Given their status as Supreme Court justices, even in the middle of the adversity confronting them, they should not have engaged in a distraction totally incompatible with the dignity and respect that their high offices attract.

     “It is demeaning for them to abandon their legitimate defence in order to smear a high official of the Buhari government, which latter, they probably consider to be the source of their predicaments.  Mere allegations cannot have enough weight to affect the position of such a high official as Amaechi.

    “Otherwise knowing the disposition of Nigerians for putting people down, no office holder will be safe in this country.  It is therefore improper and ridiculous to compare the position of the Justices in whose houses millions of naira and hundreds of thousands of dollars were recovered, to that of Amaechi against whom there is only the mere (ipse dixit) words of mouth of the Judges.

     Sagay maintained that the wrong attribution to Amaechi by the Justices underscored the style of powerful opposition politicians from Rivers and Akwa-Ibom States, stressing that  they were the ones who financed judicial corruption and brought the judiciary to its knees after last year’s elections.

     The former university don said the allegations are intended to undermine and weaken the Buhari government by depriving it of the service, input, ideas and productivity of some of its brightest stars.

    Sagay said the plot was intended to set the stage for charging the government with ineffectiveness and cluelessness.

    He added: “It is an attempt to reduce the image and perception of this Federal Government to the low level of their own late and unlamented government.Therefore, the call for Amaechi to step down is malicious and vindictive. It should be ignored with complete ignominy.”

  • Ship owners urge Amaechi, Peterside to make cabotage fund public

    Ship owners urge Amaechi, Peterside to make cabotage fund public

    BY how much has the N60 billion Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) kept with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) grown?

    This is the poser indigenous ship- owners and others who attended the World Maritime Day, organised by the Ministry of Transportation, want the Minister of Transport (MoT), Mr Rotimi Amaechi, and NIMASA Director-General  Dr Dakuku Peterside, to answer.

    The CVFF was created by the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act 2003 to promote indigenous ship acquisition.

    Section 42 Part VIII of the Act empowers NIMASA to collect and administer the fund, under the minister’s guidance after approval by the National Assembly.

    The ship owners and stakeholders  alleged that part of the N60 billon fund had been spent without any   development in the industry.

    Besides the MoT, nobody knows the amount NIMASA has collected  since its inception.

    The fund, they said, was established 12 years ago to boost local content.

    Counsel to a shipping firm, Mr Dipo Alaka, said the call became necessary, following the arraignment of former Director-General NIMASA Patrick Akpobolokemi, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Alake claimed that the CVFF has grown to millions of dollars without any shipping firm benefiting from it.

    Most contributors, he said, did not know the actual amount in NIMASA’s care, adding that it was time the minister and the agency declared the amount since it is just a collector of the fund.

    Alaka said his clients were sad that they did not benefit from the fund.

    A maritime bank, he said, would be more appropriate to handle the CVFF, adding that NIMASA should not keep the fund anymore.

    “The only way the APC-led Federal Government can support the maritime sector is funding.But since the first National Maritime Authority (NMA) Act was created up till NIMASA, all the money that have been allocated for the CVFF, not a dime has been released, showing that there is a problem with the agency saddled with the management of the fund.

    “Unconfirmed sources within the agency told my clients that a huge part of the money was tinkered with by a former DG during the last presidential election. If the allegation is true, that as wrong because the money does not belong to NIMASA. The objective was to use it to develop ther local shipping industry which, Amaechi said, he wants to promote.”

    He wondered how many shipowners can  say the NMA or NIMASA supported them to buy a ship.

  • Calls for Amaechi, Onu’s sack frivolous, mischievous – APC

    Calls for Amaechi, Onu’s sack frivolous, mischievous – APC

    The Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed the call on President Muhammadu Buhari by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to sack the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, as frivolous.

    Rivers APC chairman Chief Davies Ikanya, said: “It is a known fact that the embattled Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and John Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court, who are currently under the Department of State Services (DSS) investigation for serious corruption charges, only resorted to the cheap, convenient, everyday reaction of people caught red-handed committing crimes, in order to divert attention away from the grave reality confronting them, especially when faced with sufficient evidence.

    “It is even more disconcerting that PDP in the said call, refused to recognise the naked fact that by accusing the ministers of attempting to induce the justices to pervert the course of justice, the accused justices introduced unrelated allegations against innocent persons, unconnected with the matter for which they are being investigated, something that many accused persons easily, conveniently and cheaply resort to when caged.

    “The questions that quickly come to mind include: were the huge sums of money reportedly found in their homes given to them by the ministers they are accusing? Do the petitions for which the justices are being investigated have anything to do with Amaechi or Onu?

    “Are Justices of the Supreme Court unaware that relevant laws of the land impose on them the strict duty to properly and formally report inducement of any kind in a timely manner or risk prison term of not less than two years?”

    The party asked Buhari and Nigerians to completely disregard the call, describing it as a distraction to the anti-corruption war.

    It said: “They (PDP leaders) should allow President Buhari to fight corruption without their childish and partisan distractions. The President Buhari’s fight against corruption is about Nigeria and moving Nigeria forward.

    “The PDP should rather be calling for the expulsion and sack of their governors and Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, from the Southsouth zone involved in the pervasion of justice in governorship electoral matters, by financially inducing the Supreme Court justices under investigation.”

     

  • Amaechi urges investors to focus on shipping

    Amaechi urges investors to focus on shipping

    The Federal Government has urged investors in the maritime industry to focus on shipping business and provide services at competitive prices to boost the nation’s economy

    The government has also advised foreign shipping companies and local collaborators to stop imposing additional surcharges on importers without prior consultation with the relevant government agencies to avoid sanctions.

    The Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi  who spoke yesterday at the World  Maritime Day celebration in Lagos also urged investors to take advantage of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fun (CVFF) in order to boost ship building and repair facilities and generate more money for the country.

    He identified non-competitiveness, low level of investment, lack of fund, low implementation and enforcement of existing laws as the major challenges facing the sector.

    To address the challenges facing the sector, Amaechi said the Federal Government  has approved the construction of a Deep Sea Port at Lekki, in Lagos, to complement the existing ports.

    He said the Federal Government is also addressing the multiple challenges in the sector by finding solutions to the issue of capital flight, creation of more jobs for youth, provision of opportunity for sea training of graduate cadets as well as encouraging the resuscitation in the ship building and repairs sub-sector of shipping.

  • Amaechi commiserates with Ake’s family

    Amaechi commiserates with Ake’s family

    Former Rivers State Governor and Transportation Minister Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has said former Chairman of the state’s chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the late Chief Godspower Umejuru Ake, was a peace-loving man who contributed immensely to human and capital development.

    Amaechi spoke on Friday at Erema, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area during the burial of the politician.

    The late Ake was an ally of the Transportation Minister. He was also a former member of the House of Assembly in the First Republic.

    Amaechi, who acknowledged the role the late Ake played in his governorship ambition, recalled that many people the elder statesman assisted later turned against him.

    He said: “Chief was a very peace-loving man.  from the way he walked and the way he talked, you would know that he never liked violence. A lot of us seated here today have benefited from chief in one way or the other. Starting from Chief Rufus Ada George and Dr. Peter Odili, my former boss. After God, chief contributed in making Dr. Peter Odili deputy governor and contributed to also making him governor. So, chief helped to make governors after God.”

  • Amaechi: The betrayers’ nightmare

    Obviously, Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who was at a time Governor of Rivers State, may have had no inkling whatsoever what his generosity to mankind would cost him in the present day. Had he known, may be, he would have had no dealings whatsoever with some people, particularly in politics.

    Amaechi’s case is an apparent reference to the case of Judas who betrayed his master Jesus Christ as recorded in the book of Matthew. Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples, in the case of Amaechi, his betrayers are in numbers.

    Those who do not comprehend the story of Amaechi in politics need not delay in carrying out their research, and should do so before waging a war against Amaechi; be it political or spiritual.

    Amaechi’s political growth has never been possible without travails. In his political life, storms are ingredients God uses in strengthening him, thus making him victorious.

    Right from the day Amaechi nursed the ambition to contest as a lawmaker to represent Ikwerre Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly; he had encountered impediments that threatened his political career.

    Having been in active politics for over 30 years, he, even at present, is still battling with “forces of   darkness”.

    One interesting phenomenon about Amaechi is that in the end, he is vindicated.

    Expectedly, all those who have waged political war against the Ubima-born politician and the Buhari strong man, have never, at any point in time, displayed concrete evidence of the corruption allegations levelled against him. They do so only with the intent to smear his image and rubbish his hard-earned reputation.

    Unfortunately, those who are in this business to stop Amaechi by “all means” are men and women he stood by during their trying times.

    Amaechi’s antagonists, particularly in his home state, Rivers have marks of his benevolence.  The success story of over 70 per cent of political gladiators in Rivers State nowadays cannot be complete without mentioning Amaechi.

    Today, the same people whom the former Rivers State governor fed, clothed and stood by are the ones calling for his head.

    Having been tortured by the previous Federal Government led by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Amaechi wakes up stronger to confront realities of life. One will not forget in a hurry how they gathered against him at the pre-ministerial era to stop his confirmation as a minister.

    Amaechi, having scaled through those hurdles with the support of Nigerians and his supporters, had thought that his political rivals would go to sleep. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case. The print media was, penultimate week, awash with screaming headlines about Amaechi.

    He had no knowledge whatsoever that those whom he assisted in life would betray him. The last time it was through a so-called Integrity Group led by one Livingstone Wechie. This time, it is through the Judiciary. Justices Okoro and Ngwuta were the tools used to stab the Buhari strong man.

    While justices Okoro and Ngwuta keep mentioning Amaechi, none of them has so far denied the main thing they are being hunted for.

    One question most Nigerians keep asking Justices Okoro and his colleague  Inyang is, why they never made this allegation known to the public as at the time they alleged Amaechi approached them to pervert justice?

    Did they need to wait until this time when the Buhari anti-corruption war is extended to the judiciary if they were upright judges? This is clearly a case of a drowning man who does not want to die alone. Justices Okoro and Ngwuta are doing the bid of their sponsors; they should face the music and leave Amaechi alone.

    Those who are using the power of money to fight Amaechi today should know that a day of reckoning will come.

    At a time when we thought that the fight was over, they are sleeplessly thinking of a new tactics to strike. Interestingly, evil does not prevail over good. God, in His infinite mercy would definitely vindicate him.

    Those who launch fresh attack on Amaechi should henceforth have a rethink because those who shouted “kill Amaechi” at the time when Jonathan ruled are now sneaking in at night to beg for pardon.

    The Igbo adage that the mouth that spoke evil will certainly speak well is eminently playing out. Only time will tell.

     

    • Okpara contributed this piece from Abuja 

     

  • ‘Allegations against Amaechi frivolous’

    ‘Allegations against Amaechi frivolous’

    EX- aide to former Bayelsa State governor Mike Olomu, has said the allegations against Minister of Transportation and former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi are frivolous.

    The ex-aide to Timpreye Sylva said Justice John Okoro’s outburst against Amaechi was a case of corruption fighting back and trying to strangulate efforts of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to purge the Judiciary of bad elements.

    Olomu spoke yesterday in Yenagoa, the state capital.

    The former governor’s aide hailed Amaechi for exonerating himself from the allegations, including instituting a defamation suit against the Justice Okoro.

    He noted that the allegations were inconsistent with realities on the ground and charges by the Department of State Services (DSS) against Justice Okoro.

    Olomu said: “If former Governor Amaechi, as claimed by Justice Okoro, had visited him in his home and told him that the President sent him (Amaechi) to plead with the judge that they must win their election appeals in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia states, why did he not file a report before the National Judicial Council (NJC) or report same to the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN)?

    “It is clear that the fold of corrupt forces within and outside the Judiciary have decided and tutored the disgraced justice on what to say and how to embark on the clear attacks on the anti-corruption drive of President Buhari.

    “We call on Justice Okoro to focus on the charges against him and stop throwing mud in order to truncate the prosecution and the coming jail term.

    “We call on President Buhari not to be disturbed by the false allegation of Justice Okoro and his cohorts but to remain focused and resolute to ensure the anti-corruption drive of his administration remains on course.

    “It is criminal that justice from the Judiciary has become the property of the highest bidder while ordinary Nigerians who are unable to pay end up in jail and their rights trampled upon.”

     

     

  • Enugu APC to indicted justices: leave Amaechi, Onu alone

    The Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged embattled Justices John Inyang Okoro and Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court to withdraw their allegations against Transportation Minister Chibuike Amaechi and his Science and Technology counterpart, Ogbonnaya Onu.

    The two Supreme Court justices, in their separate letters to the Chief of Justice of Nigeria (CJN), accused Onu and Amechi, of attempting to bribe them to pervert justice.

    In a statement, APC Publicity Secretary Mrs Kate Ofor said: “I am outraged that instead of defending themselves, the Honourable Justices Okoro and Ngwuta are looking for people to drag along with them; hence, the resort to an afterthought. They should forthwith leave Dr. Onu and Amechi alone.”

    On the allegation that one of the justices informed the CJN of their lobby, Ofor said: “The Honourable Justices, going by the powers conferred on them by the 1999 Constitution, are aware that they have the power to call on the police or even their orderly to arrest anybody who attempts to pervert the course of justice. It is not enough to whisper to the CJN, who luckily, has not owned up to such frivolous allegation.

    “It is painful that corruption has penetrated deeply into the temple of justice, where justice is for sale, to the extent that humongous amounts in different currencies were allegedly found in the homes of the justices, like bureau de change dealers. This is why President Muhammadu Buhari lamented that if Nigerians do not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigerians.”

    On the disagreement between the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) over the suspension of the justices, Ofor, who cited constitutional provisions, said: “I am happy that the NBA has woken up; the NJC and indeed the CJN should be more patriotic to joining this strident war against corruption. If Nigerians do not join the fight and show enough commitment, then we are in soup. The constitution never envisaged this level of unbridled corruption penetrating the temple of justice. In the past, there were instances where the NJC used kid gloves, administratively, in dealing with malcontent judges. The result is what we have in hand today.

    “It was Magna Carter, an enactment in England in the 12th century, which admonished justices or anybody in authority not to sell justice. Its dictum subsists till date.”

    Referring to a statement by Justice Samson O. Uwaifo (retd.), the APC spokesperson said: “A corrupt judge is more harmful to the society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in his hand in a crowded street. He can be restrained physically, of course, but a corrupt judge deliberately destroys the moral foundation of the society.”

    She added: “In the past, we had forthright judges, like the late Justice Anthony Aniagolu, who voluntarily declined to become CJN after a military coup because he was the third in the hierarchy. He also declined a tribunal case because his son, Tony Mogboh (SAN), was the lawyer to the defendant.”

    The APC spokesperson also said: “Let the ,trial commence as all we need is enough evidence by the justice, not name-calling. Therefore, leave Onu and Amechi alone.”