The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, has reacted to the commission of inquiry instituted by his successor, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike to investigate his tenure as governor, describing the probe as a movie and a fraudulent witch-hunt meant to deceive the public.

The ex-governor, in a statement released by his media office on Sunday, described Wike as a sick man who is sickly fixated on rubbing him with his mud of corruption and then grabbing media headlines with his concocted bogus stories of ‘Amaechi’s alleged corrupt activities.’

He further berated his successor for not being able to cloak his vindictive stance during the inauguration of the probe committee by making it “clear to the panel members that their job is to indict Amaechi.”

He stated, “We are aware that even the Chairman of his Inquiry Commission, was shocked and protested when Wike gave him the litany of phony claims of corruption against Amaechi that the chairman would write in the panel’s report. But Wike had assured him not to worry that he had since been working towards arriving at that conclusion and he would provide the commission with all the (fake) evidence needed to arrive at that report.

“Truly, since May 29, that is all Wike has been doing; cooking spurious reports of corruption against Amaechi. Wike has been intimidating, threatening, coercing and blackmailing officials of the past administration, especially civil
servants into making false, phony and bogus statements that would make legitimate government transactions appear as corrupt
practices. Permanent Secretaries, Directors of Finance and Administration (DFAs), the State bankers and even contractors are harassed, threatened and blackmailed to twist and distort, or even completely alter legitimate government transactions in his desperation to cook up, and fabricate sham cases of corruption against Amaechi. This has been the one-point agenda of the Wike government, a vendetta mission against his former boss and benefactor.

“Amaechi will use every constitutional and legal means available to protect his name and image from this massive smear campaign, State-sponsored onslaught against him by this directionless, purposeless Wike led government. As governor, Amaechi served his people well and the good things he did with the resources of the state are visible all over the state,” the statement read.

Amaechi further took a swipe at his former deputy, Tele Ikuru, over his claims that the immediate past administration under which Ikuru served as deputy governor was the most corrupt in the State, noting that he would not dignify Ikuru with a response.

He described the former deputy governor as “a worthless piece of trash that we won’t waste our energy on.

“This is a man with no dignity, no shame. No self-respecting man would talk the way Ikuru is talking right now. This is a character that served the Amaechi administration for almost eight years.

“While he was there, he never for once complained that Amaechi or the government that he was the second-in-command was corrupt. As a matter of fact, he was singing and parroting everywhere that Rivers State was truly blessed to have a governor like Amaechi, that Amaechi will always be remembered and hailed for changing for good the fortunes of Rivers State.

“Today, the shameless clown is the one shouting Amaechi is corrupt, everywhere. If the government was as corrupt as he claims, what was he doing there for almost eight years, telling the world that Amaechi is the best thing to happen to Rivers State? No character, no self-respect, no dignity, no shame. A character like Ikuru should never be taken seriously,” Amaechi stated.