Chief Nyesom Wike squandered over N60 billion in his first 30 days as the Rivers State Governor, the State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged this morning. This amounts to an average of N2B per day.
Rivers APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, said in a statement he issued in Port Harcourt. “In what is clearly a tale of the absurd, Wike’s rubber stamp State House of Assembly has approved a whopping sum of N30B within 30 days for expenditure without any project attached. Apart from this N30B, the administration of Rt. Hon. Chbuike Amaechi left the sum of N7.5B, plus the N23B released to the State from the Federation Account and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), making the total funds available for Wike to squander over N60B within 30 days.”
According to Ikanya, “Within the 30 days, which rank among the worst in the history of Rivers State, Wike has neither initiated nor embarked upon any project apart from ordering a trailer load of his favourite Lexus XIII drink, a bottle of which costs N1.5m, and sharing the remaining billions of naira with Madam Patience Jonathan, INEC officials and others that supervised the killing of Rivers State people so that Wike would become Governor. While Governors of states like Kaduna, Bauchi, Sokoto Abia, Lagos, Delta and Adamawa that were sworn-in the same date with Wike are initiating and executing projects aimed to improve the standard of living of their people, the Rivers State Care-Taker Governor is busy supervising the liquidation of the economy of Rivers State through acts of squandermania unknown to modern governance in the entire world. Wike has succeeded within 30days turn Rivers State to one of the dirtiest states in Nigeria without security and in ensuring that our people now sleep with one eye opened!”
Continuing, the Rivers APC Chairman said: “We are reliably informed that Wike is now at the edge of his seat and is desperate to source for funds by any means to pay off the money which former First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan used in installing him as the Governor of Rivers State within two months instead of the four years spacing as earlier agreed between them. Dame Patience is said to have said that she can no longer wait for four years to recoup her investment as she is not sure if Wike will last as Governor till September, 2015.”
Rivers APC advised banks to stop advancing loans to the Wike administration as such loans would be difficult to recover if such funds are released without any project attached to them. “The period of sharing Rivers State money among some unscrupulous politicians ceased since 2007 and cannot be reintroduced through the back door,” the party said.
It sympathised with Rivers people “on the great tragedy that has befallen them in the person of Wike” but appealed to them “not to be overly saddened as the rightful Governor, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, is only waiting for the Election Petition Tribunal to throw away the unprepared Wike to enable him assume office and clear the mess that Wike is currently creating in the state.”
