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Tag: Amaechi

  • Abuja-Kaduna rail line now generate N1m daily- Amaechi

    The Abuja to Kaduna rail line now generates one million Naira daily, Minister of Transportation Mr. Rotimi Amaechi disclosed.

    In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Benin, Amaechi said that the feat was because of the increase in passengers that patronise the rail.

    He attributed the passenger surge to the security challenges faced by commuters along the route.

    ‘’We are spending N56 million per month, we are getting back only N16 million. Now there is an improvement; we now make N30 million, (that is) one million Naira per day.

    ‘’The improvement started last month because of increase in passengers because of the kidnapping on the road,’’ he said.

    The minister said that government was using the previously generated revenues on the maintenance of the coaches and other logistics.

    Amaechi said that government would address the issue of touting at the Idu rail station with the expected arrival of 10 more coaches by October.

    He, however, disclosed that the arrival of the new coaches would require more resources for maintenance in order to meet customers’ expectations.

    TheNewsGuru recalls that the Abuja-Kaduna rail line commenced commercial operation in July 2016.

     

  • Corruption: Ignore Wike’s rants, he has no evidence against me – Amaechi tells supporters

    Corruption: Ignore Wike’s rants, he has no evidence against me – Amaechi tells supporters

    Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi has insisted that Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has no evidence to prove his allegations of corruption against him.

    He maintained that he ran a transparent administration, devoid of spurious acts and practices, which his successor (Wike) has been attributing to him.

    Amaechi, a former chair of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), in a statement on Tuesday by his Media Office, declared that his former chief of staff and Director-General of Amaechi Re-election Campaign Organisation in 2011, was forging and concocting documents to defame, disparage and vilify him, in his desperate and failed bid to portray him as corrupt.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Governor Nyesom Wike, while addressing the Council of Traditional Rulers in Port Harcourt on Monday, claimed he had evidence of Amaechi’s corrupt acts as governor.

    Amaechi said: “Wike has nothing, we mean absolutely nothing concrete to prove his fabricated claims. However, we are aware, as a matter of fact, it is now public knowledge that Wike has been forging and distorting a cache of documents in his increasingly frantic efforts to denigrate Amaechi. This forgery and contortion commenced immediately Wike assumed office as governor and it is ongoing.

    “Nigerians were shocked a few days back when Livingstone Wechie, the young man Wike used to accuse Amaechi of corruption and write false and frivolous petitions to the National Assembly, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) etc., confessed freely and openly, that all the documents he used to wrongfully portray Amaechi as corrupt when he governed Rivers State, were phony, forged documents given to him by Wike’s Rivers State Government House.”

    “It is ludicrous and appalling that Wike is still talking about his credibility-bereft Commission of Enquiry, when Livingstone Wechie also admitted that the forged documents were what were used as the template, the basis for the Justice Omereji-led Judicial Commission of Enquiry, an inquisition panel Wike set up early in his administration to witch-hunt, malign and persecute Amaechi.

    “Nigerians are now accustomed to Wike’s shameful charade whenever he says he has ‘evidence’ against Amaechi. How can we forget in a hurry when Wike outrageously claimed he had evidence to prove Amaechi’s ownership of the $43 million Ikoyi money and luxury apartment? In spite of all the noise Wike made, all his over-the-top political dramatisation of Amaechi ownership of the Ikoyi money, Wike could not even go to court to claim the money with his so-called evidence. Wike has suddenly gone deaf and dumb on the Ikoyi money, many months after his seven-day ultimatum for the Federal Government to give him the money or face the mother of all legal actions.

    “How can anyone take a character like Wike seriously, especially when he says he has evidence against Amaechi? How can a governor talk so recklessly and irresponsibly?”

    The Transportation minister also stated that he will continue to remind Rivers people that his former aide’s (Wike’s) antics were a clear attempt to distract and divert attention from his mindless plundering of the resources of the state and spate of his (Wike’s) induced insecurity in Rivers.

    He said: “Wike must realise that every lie has an expiry date. Rivers people are tired and sick of Wike’s fake stories of ‘Amaechi this, Amaechi that’, every day.

    “Rather, the people (of Rivers State) want to know what happened to all the billions of naira Wike has collected from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), Paris Club refund, internally-generated revenue and the funds he borrowed.”

     

     

  • Amaechi must be probed, Wike insists

    Amaechi must be probed, Wike insists

    Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said that there exists evidence of corruption against the immediate past administration of Chibuike Amaechi.

    Wike told Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers in Port Harcourt yesterday that Amaechi admitted paying $39 million for a non-existent Justice Karibi Whyte Mega Specialist Hospital and sold the state’s gas turbines.

    He alleged that the immediate past administration diverted the funds realised from the sales of gas turbines. “All the documents that proved Amaechi’s corrupt acts are authentic. We never forged documents. The former governor himself admitted that he paid out $39 million to Clinotech without a single block laid anywhere. Is that a document he claims was forged? Where is the hospital?

    He has agreed in different interviews that he sold the state gas turbines for $309 million. Convert $309 million to naira and you will understand the level of fraud. Amaechi left only $204,000 in the state account.

    “The bank statements of the pattern of withdrawals from that account are there for all to see. Can that be forged? The dates and amounts withdrawn are clearly written,” the governor said.

    Wike, who at the weekend announced the revocation of the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) of a major hotel in Port Harcourt where officials of All Progressives Congress (APC) had stormed to protest the flawed conduct of the party’s local council congress, warned that any hotel that opens its facility for electoral fraud and malpractices would lose its operational certificate of occupancy.

    “Any hotel that is used to rig elections, that hotel’s certificate of occupancy will be withdrawn. I will not allow that anymore,” he said. He, therefore, warned traditional rulers against working with armed gangs to cause insecurity in their communities.

  • We have overwhelming evidence of Amaechi’s corrupt acts as Rivers Governor – Wike

    Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has declared that the evidence of corruption against the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is so overwhelming that the Minister of Transportation admitted to them publicly.

    Addressing the 106th Quarterly Meeting of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers in Port Harcourt on Monday, Governor Wike said that Amaechi admitted paying $39million for a non-existent Justice Karibi Whyte Mega Specialist Hospital.

    He added that the Former Governor confessed publicly that he sold the State’s Gas Turbines, which the immediate past administration diverted the funds.

    Governor Wike said: “All the documents that proved Amaechi’s corrupt acts are authentic. We never forged documents. The former governor himself admitted that he paid out $39million to Clinotech, without a single block laid anywhere. Is that a document he claims was forged. Where is the Hospital?

    “He has agreed in different interviews that he sold the state gas turbines for $309million. Convert $309million United States dollars to naira and you will understand the level of fraud. Amaechi left only $204,000 in the state account.

    “The bank statements of the pattern of withdrawals from that account are there for all to see. Can that be forged? The dates and amounts withdrawn are clearly written”.

    The governor berated the Minister of Transportation for engaging in the blackmail of the Supreme Court because his appeal is pending before the Apex Court over the establishment of the Rivers State Judicial Commission of Inquiry.

    “There is no time that he loses a case without blackmailing the Judiciary. He feels that the only way he can do it is to blackmail the Supreme Court. You cannot play politics with everything “.

    On the use of hotels for electoral fraud, the governor warned that any hotel that opens its facility for electoral fraud and malpractice will lose its operational certificate of occupancy.

    He said: “Any hotel that is used to rig elections, that hotel’s certificate of occupancy will be withdrawn. I will not all that anymore “.

    He regretted that the Former Rivers State Governor has continued to work against the interest of the State, refusing to use his position as a Minister to attract benefits to the people.

    Speaking further, he warned traditional rulers against working with armed gangs to cause insecurity in their communities.

    Earlier, the Chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers and Amayanabo of Opobo, King Dandeson Jaja commended the governor for the commencement of the reconstruction of 175 public schools across the state.

    He appealed to the governor to set up a process to check the sale of illicit drugs in the state.

  • News Hour 31-07-2017 I TNGtv

  • Wike brags of influence on Supreme Court, says Amaechi

    Wike brags of influence on Supreme Court, says Amaechi

    Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi has accused his successor Nyesom Wike of boasting that he has influence on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, and the judiciary.

    He stated that Wike continued to forge more documents against him.

    Amaechi yesterday in an online statement by his media office said Wike wanted to use the forged documents to persecute and prosecute him in court.

    Wike is Amaechi’s former Chief of Staff and the director-general of his re-election campaign organisation in 2011.

    The minister said: “In the past couple of days, Wike has been telling anyone who cares to listen, bragging that he will certainly get a conviction, a judgment against Amaechi in the law courts on spurious charges of corruption, using his forged documents because he (Wike) is in control of the judiciary at the state and national levels.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state that Wike has been boasting that he has the judges in the Rivers State judiciary in his pocket, that he is in full control and that the Rivers State judiciary would always give him any judgment he wants against Amaechi.

    “Furthermore, Wike is bragging that the CJN is his ‘main man’ that would readily and easily assist him get any judgment he wants against Amaechi at the apex court, using his contorted documents.

    “Wike is also telling anyone who cares to listen that the Supreme Court (Justices) and judges generally are not happy with Amaechi and so they would easily convict him with any forged document he presents in court. Power-drunk Wike is using the recent visit of the CJN to Rivers State as his bragging right to prove his ‘extreme’ closeness to the CJN.

    “Nigerians would recall that only a few days back, Livingstone Wechie, the young man Wike used to accuse Amaechi of corruption and write false and frivolous petitions to the National Assembly, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) etc., confessed in a live television programme and in a statement he also circulated to the media, that all the documents he used to wrongfully portray Amaechi as corrupt when he governed Rivers State, were phonies, forged documents given to him by Wike’s Rivers State Government House.

    “Wechie also admitted, like we have always said, that the forged documents were used as the template and basis for the Justice Omereji-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry, a panel Wike set up early in his administration to witch-hunt, malign, vilify and persecute Amaechi.”

    Replying the transport minister, governor Wike in a statement by his media aide, Mr Simeon Nwakaudu, said: “Our attention has been drawn to a reckless statement credited to Amaechi to the effect that Governor Wike is forging documents to secure his conviction in a court of law.

    This allegation is unfounded, baseless and a figment of the imagination of the former governor. “Amaechi also went ahead to falsely allege that Wike bragged that he has the judiciary in the state and at the federal level in his pocket to secure his conviction on charges of corruption.

    This is another false allegation, merely concocted by the former governor to distract attention from the crimes he committed against Rivers people, by diverting their resources. “We are not surprised by Amaechi’s antics to blackmail the judiciary. Ever since the Supreme Court victory that validated the election of Wike, Amaechi has never failed to malign the judiciary. Governor Wike is a law abiding citizen, who believes in the rule of law. That is why he has followed due process in tackling the issue of high level corruption against the Minister of Transportation. “We have very credible documents to prove the mass corrupt acts of the former governor against the good people of Rivers State. We also saw a reckless post by Amaechi’s associate, Mr Igo Aguma trying to denigrate the judiciary.

    This is most unfortunate. “Amaechi’s sponsorship of Wechie will not change the facts that are known to all Nigerians. All documents tendered at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry that investigated the Sale of Valued Assets of the State by the Amaechi administration are genuine.” Same pattern, the same blatant distorted and forged documents, same old concocted stories of corruption allegations against Amaechi told with different twists. “Nigerians will not forget in a hurry how Wike, hurriedly called a suspicious late night press conference to lie that the over $43million found by EFCC in a luxury apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos and the apartment belongs to Amaechi.”

  • FG will concession Onitsha port before year end, Amaechi assures

    The Federal Government, on Tuesday, promised to complete the process of concessioning the Onitsha Port in Anambra State before the end of the year.

    Speaking at the 2017 International Conference and Exhibition organised by the National Inland Waterways Authority ( NIWA), in Lagos, Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi said the government has recorded tremendous progress on the concessioning of the port and urged local and foreign investors to invest in inland ports and jetties to facilitate movement of goods and persons across the country.

    The theme of the event is: ‘Improving Navigation and Inland Ports Development for sustainable Investment on Nigerian Waterways’.

    Amaechi spoke of immense investment opportunities in the nation’s inland waterways.

    The network of rivers, creeks, lagoons and lakes, the former governor of Rivers state said, are great resources that needed to be utilised maximally by the private sector.

    Amaechi said budgetary appropriations have been made to ensure the completion of the Baro, Lokoja and Oguta River ports within the lifespan of the President Buhari administration.

    He said: “I am happy to announce that NIWA, especially under its new leadership, has been able to look inward and through their in-house engineers, have commenced the maintenance dredging of te Ajaokuta to Onitsha channels of River Niger; and this will save the country huge sums of money.

    “I implore NIWA to procure bigger dredgers that have bigger capacity to perform better than they are doing presently.

    “Another area that should earn our commendations on the activities of NIWA is the progress recorded over the amendment of the NIWA Bill at the National Assembly. The bill has gone through third reading at the Senate and it is hoped that the House of Representatives will also support and endorse the new bill, which in essence will enhance the capacity of NIWA to enforce her rules and regulations, resolve the present crisis with her sister parastatals and other government agencies, and boost the revenue profile of the Authority in order to make it self-sustaining.

    “In the industry today, NIWA is also unveiling the Aquatic Wed Harvester (FX-IIB) and the Vegetative Cutter (AVC)-Swamp Devils I, II, and III which will go a long way in clearing water hyacinth on our waterways and enhance navigation especially in the Southern part of the country,” Amaechi said.

    NIWA Managing Director Boss Mustapha said the event was organised to promote the use of inland waterways transportation as a competitive alternative mode of transport in Nigeria.

    The forum, he said, would enable the stakeholders to understand government policies in the sector.

    He said there was need for free navigation on the waterways and development inland ports for cargo handling and passenger operations to create connectivity for multimodal transport linkages: Road, rail, waterways and sea transport.

    “Another focus of this conference is to encourage the government and stakeholders to strengthen the desired machinery towards deriving the benefits of investment in coastal and inland shipping operations on the Nigerian waterways.

    “To achieve this development goal, NIWA has commissioned an in-house project team to embark on a continuous dredging of the entire waterways in Nigeria, which was flagged-off by the Minister of Transportation with an overwhelming support of the Governor of Kogi State .

    “We are also scheduled to complete the construction and I stall action of cargo handling equipment at the Baro port, Lokoja port, Oguta port and a number of jetties and landing platforms in many communities along the waterways this year.”

    NIWA, he said, is also restructuring to create functional department and business units that will specifically handle the potential Public-private -partnership agreement on concession and leases.

    “One of the focus of this conference is to encourage government and stakeholders to strengthen the desired machinery towards deriving the benefits of investments in Coastal and Inland Shipping Operations on the Nigerian waterways.

    “To achieve this developmental goal, NIWA has commissioned an in-house project team to embark on a continuous dredging of the entire waterways in Nigeria, which was flagged off by the Honourable Minister of Transportation with an overwhelming support of His Excellency, the Governor of Kogi State on the 28th of April, 2017 at the Ajaokuta jetty. This is aimed at sweeping silts and deepening the waterways for smooth navigation.

    “The Onitsha port that is fully equipped and was commissioned in January 2013 has now received Ministerial approval for the advert for Expression of Interest (EoI) to be published.

    “We are also scheduled to complete the construction and installation of cargo handling equipment at the Baro port, Lokoja port, Oguta port and a number of jetties and landing platforms in many communities along the waterways this year,” Mustapha said.

     

  • Wike forged documents to indict Amaechi, says Integrity Group

    Wike forged documents to indict Amaechi, says Integrity Group

    An anti-corruption watchdog, The Integrity Group, has recanted its allegations against the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

    The group had earlier petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in a letter dated July 29, 2015 titled: “CORRUPTION, CRIMINAL BREACH OF TRUST, UNLAWFUL ENRICHMENT, AND CONVERSION OF OVER 70 BILLION NAIRA STATE RESOURCES BY FORMER GOVERNOR ROTIMI AMAECHI AND OTHER FUNCTIONARIES’’, demanding the investigation and prosecution of Rotimi Amaechi over a then falsely believed conversion of Rivers monies/proceeds of the purported sales of State Assets including Power Plants, a certain Karibi Whyte Hospital and diversion of some monies from the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service etc.

    However, in a statement made available to TheNewsGuru.com via mail, the executive director of the group, Livingstone Wechie said the Rivers state government cashed into his group’s investigation and furnished them with forged documents.

    He continued: “May we state that our organization, in all honesty, relying on those documents unknown to have been forged and fabricated by the Wike-led Rivers state government, subsequently advised the Rivers state government to set up a panel of inquiry to investigate these allegations among others accordingly as part of our quest to get justice for the good people of Rivers state.

    “The panel did its work in fairness to the chairman, Justice George Omereji and the members and submitted their report to the governor unknown to the world that it was all politics and documents tendered were fabricated and forged out of sheer desperation to indict Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and paint him black at all costs for selfish reasons.

    “This is one reason among others that the Wike-led River state government having mischievously achieved their aim of diminishing Amaechi, are still unable, two years after, to commence prosecutorial actions as of right against Rotimi Amaechi knowing that the documents will be challenged having been forged.

    “Our organization as a mark of the highest responsibility owes the world a duty of honesty and trust; not being a political platform but strictly an anti-corruption watchdog to question and engage any government without fear in keeping with probity in governance.

    “May we state that just as we questioned the Amaechi government on major fiscal matters during the life of his administration through our various platforms, we shall also not spare the Wike administration which has shown gross abuse of powers much more than the Rotimi Amaechi administration at an alarming degree.”

     

  • I will expose Wike’s wife if he doesn’t shut up – Amaechi

    I will expose Wike’s wife if he doesn’t shut up – Amaechi

    Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Tuesday lambasted his successor, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, and threatened to expose the governor’s wife “if he (Wike) does not shut up his mouth.”
    Angry over the allegation levelled against his wife by the Rivers governor, Amaechi described his successor as a thug who could hardly speak good English.
    On Monday, Wike alleged that each commissioner and local government chairman in Rivers State paid the erstwhile governor’s wife, Judith, N3m and N2m monthly, respectively.
    Speaking to Journalists during an inspection programme at Kaduna Dry Port, Amaechi said, “By accident of Goodluck Jonathan, I don’t want to attribute it to God, but by the accident of Jonathan, the man takes office and talks rubbish. My wife and family, including my younger brothers and sisters, no one had access to government when I was governor.
    “Even as minister, nobody will have such because it is not a family business. It is government business. But the problem with Nyesom Wike, and I want you to state this if he doesn’t shut up his mouth and do his work I will bring his wife to the focus. You see I’ve been very matured not to talk about his wife.
    “But if Wike does not close his mouth and talk about my wife anymore, I will bring out his wife. My wife will never do such, we don’t do family business. I care about transparency. My wife is a trader. She buys and sells and Wike knows that.”
    When asked why he was also accused of squandering over N30bn belonging to Rivers State, Amaechi said, “And you believe that? The man who says he has about $50m in Lagos and could no prove it is the same man you believe. The man who said I didn’t pay salaries until I left office and now he is saying no, it is pensioners that I didn’t pay. Do you believe such a man?
    “Do you think such a man is well? You believe Nyesom Wike is well? First, he doesn’t know how to speak English, he is poorly dressed, he is a thug, and you bring me to focus with that kind of a man?”
    On the decision of the Rivers government to handle some of the issues levelled against him in court, the transportation minister declared that his team was not given fair hearing by the panel set up in the state.
    Amaechi said, “Which court, okay let him go to court. He has no fact and he maligns people’s character. The process is that you set up a tribunal, but we’ve questioned the tribunal, we were not given a fair hearing.
    “Again, how do you know how the court came to its decision? We were not even informed. There is a panel of justices in Rivers State, which is the Court of Appeal. But by the time we knew it, they took away that matter from them and gave it to a panel that came from Adamawa.”

  • No crisis in our party – Rivers APC

    The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has denied that the existence of an internal crisis within its fold.

    The party said no member of its leadership has been removed, noting that Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, only made changes “in his own political team”.

    In a statement on Saturday, Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, chairman, Rivers APC, said no member of the party has been discouraged from seeking elective office

    “All members of the All Progressives Congress(APC) leadership in Rivers State are intact. From our ward officers to State party executives, no one has been removed or suspended from office.

    “We are aware that our leader, the leader of the party in the state, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is making some changes in his personal political group, team or caucus in the State. It is his right and prerogative to make any leadership changes within his own political team, group or caucus,” the statement read.

    “Amaechi created the caucus, team or group, appointed its members and leaders and so can make any changes he deems fit with this is personal group, team or caucus. But we must emphasize that these changes by the Honourable Minister of Transportation within his personal political team, group or caucus has absolutely nothing to do with the party leadership structure and does not affect the party leadership structures at all levels in the State.

    “Contrary to fake wild speculations and deliberately misleading insinuations, no member of the party in the State is been stopped or prevented from having ambition or wanting to seek for any elective office. And we must reinstate here that no APC member will be stopped or prevented from seeking any elective office. We know for a fact that as a consummate democrat, our leader, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has not and will not stop, prevent or even attempt to discourage any party member from seeking any political office, elective or otherwise.

    “For the purpose of clarity, we want to emphasize that as a truly democratic party, The APC in Rivers State will ensure a level-playing field for all its aspirants to any elective political office. In accordance with our party rules, regulations and constitution, we shall be fair to all aspirants and will always ensure that the process leading to the emergence of our candidates for all elective political offices is free, fair and credible.

    “Finally, we want to remind and appeal to all APC party members in Rivers State that we are just half way into 2017, and campaigns for the various 2019 elections are yet to commence. Therefore, this is the time to join hands, come together and work in harmony to build a stronger and better party that will defeat our opponents at the polls in 2019.”