Kachikwu Disagrees with Amaechi at Federal Government Town Hall

Part of the highlights of the Akwa Ibom town hall meeting by the federal ministers were the different stands taken by Amaechi and Kachikwu on different issues confronting the nation. 

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has said President Muhammadu Buhari has not allocated a single oil block since he came into office, ThisDay reports.

Kachikwu said when the president eventually starts, South-south indigenes would have their share.

At a town hall meeting in Uyo, the Akwa-Ibom State capital, organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, a Nigerian asked the minister why oil block allocations favoured the North rather than the South-south, where most oil blocks are located.

Answering, Kachikwu, said this was not the doing of President Buhari, emphasising that the president would follow due process in allocation of oil blocks when the time comes.

Kachikwu also disagreed with the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on the establishment and maintenance of the Maritime University in Akwa-Ibom.

“I disagree with the minister of transport. Any facility in the South-south, we should work towards developing it, I don’t care the circumstance. It is not my business whether land was valued at 19 or 10 million,” he said responding to Amaechi’s claim that land for the university was valued at N13 billion.

“That has nothing to do with development of infrastructure. As far as I know, so much has already gone into that, so much fiscal asset has been developed. We are not going to throw away the baby and the bath water.

“We’ll deal with the issues but the university will be developed. If he (Amaechi) doesn’t want it in maritime, I will take it in Petroleum.

“On the issue of negotiations, again I disagree with him. There’s no theatre in the world where conflicts are being resolved through battle. It doesn’t matter who’s right, who’s wrong.”


Tori News

Amaechi is a 'Fantastically Corrupt' Minister in Your Cabinet - UK Media Blasts Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has come under heavy criticism by foreign press for allegedly appointing corrupt people in his cabinet. 

In its latest article, DailyMail UK, a British online media platform has called out the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi describing him as 'Nigeria's ATM'. 

 

According to the report, Amaechi is accused of misappropriating £338million by a commission investigating the sale of state assets.

 

Amaechi is accused of diverting £140million of state funds into Buhari’s presidential campaign, with reports he paid for media, consultants and private jets.

 

Here is the full report titled "Is Nigerian leader's pal 'fantastically corrupt'? Friend of African president accused of stealing £500million". 

 

"When David Cameron was caught on camera last week before an anti-corruption summit describing Nigeria as ‘fantastically corrupt’, the African state’s president rallied to the Prime Minister’s defence by agreeing with him.

 

But although Muhammadu Buhari is seen by some as leading the battle against corruption, worrying allegations swirl around one of his close allies.

 

Rotimi Amaechi, who travelled with the president to the summit, is Nigeria’s transport minister and is said to have bankrolled Buhari’s presidential campaign.

 

In the Nigerian press he has been dubbed ‘ATM’ – the American term for cash machine – because of his ability to produce vast sums of money at short notice. 

 

He remains in his post despite being accused of misappropriating £338million by a commission investigating the sale of state assets.

 

Some of that money is likely to have come from UK taxpayers, who gave the country £1billion in aid over five years to 2014, including £248million in 2014 alone. 

 

Separately, Amaechi is accused of diverting £140million of state funds into Buhari’s presidential campaign, with reports he paid for media, consultants and private jets.

 

The allegations come as the president stands accused of enjoying a lavish lifestyle while many millions suffer in poverty.

 

A leaked draft budget for 2016 showed the Nigerian government earmarked £16million for the refurbishment and maintenance of the president’s official residence, Aso Rock Guest House, in the capital Abuja. 

 

There was also a request for £13million for building a VIP wing at a hospital used by families of the president and his ministerial team.

 

Mr Amaechi has denied the allegations against him."

Tori News

'Apologise or Resign': Senate reprimand the Lying Amaechi

The Nigerian Senate has called for the resignation of Chibuike Amaechi, the Minister of Transportation, over his claim that National Assembly removed an item - the Lagos-Calabar rail project, from the 2016 National budget.

In a statement signed by the Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Nigerian Senate on Monday, demanded a publicly-tendered apology from the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, challenging him to show evidence that the Lagos-Calabar road project was included in the 2016 budget proposal sent to the National Assembly, "otherwise, [Amaechi] should resign forthwith."

 

The upper chamber called on the Presidency to come clean with Nigerians on the budget and avoid 'surreptitious campaigns of calumny against the Senate to cover up its serial errors,' saying that the legislature has bent over backwards to wring a coherent document out of the 'excessively flawed and chaotic versions' of the budget proposal submitted to it.

 

Below is the statement;

 

“While the executive is mandated to prepare and lay before the national assembly a proposed budget detailing projects to be executed, it should be made clear that the responsibility and power of appropriation lies with the national assembly,” he said in a statement.

“If the presidency expects us to return the budget proposal to them without any adjustments, then some people must be living in a different era and probably have not come to terms with democracy.

“We make bold to say, however, that the said Lagos-Calabar rail project was not included in the budget proposal presented to the national assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari and we challenge anyone who has any evidence to the contrary to present such to Nigerians.

“Since the beginning of the 2016 budget process, it is clear that the national assembly has suffered all manners of falsehood, deliberate distortion of facts, and outright blackmail, deliberately aimed at poisoning the minds of the people against the institution of the national assembly.

“We have endured this with equanimity in the overall interest of Nigerians. Even when the original submission was surreptitiously swapped and we ended up having two versions of the budget, which was almost incomprehensible and heavily padded in a manner that betrays lack of coordination and gross incompetence, we refused to play to the gallery and instead helped the executive to manage the hugely embarrassing situation it has brought upon itself; but enough is enough.

“This latest antics of this particular minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, is reckless, uncalled for and dangerously divisive. Apart from setting the people of the southern part of the country against their northern compatriots, it potentially sets the people against their lawmakers from the concerned constituencies and sets the lawmakers against themselves.

“This manner of reprehensible mischief has no place in a democracy. We hereby demand from Mr. Amaechi a publicly tendered apology if he is not able to show evidence that the Lagos-Calabar road project was included in the budget. Otherwise, he should resign forthwith.

“Finally, by the provision of Section 81 (4) (a) and (b) of the constitution, the President is allowed to sign the budget and kick-start the implementation of the other areas that constitute over 90 percent of the budget where there is agreement between both arms, even as we engage ourselves to resolve the contentious areas, if there were any. We therefore maintain that even this contrived discrepancies are not sufficient excuse not to sign the budget into law.

“We therefore urge President Buhari to sign the 2016 budget without any further delay. For every additional day that the president withholds his assent from the bill, the hardship in the land, which is already becoming intolerable for the masses of our people gets even more complicated. Certainly, as primary representatives of the people we shall not vacate our responsibility and watch the people continue to suffer unduly.”

 

 

Tori NEWS

Shocking! Buhari under Pressure to Sack Amaechi

Unconfirmed reports have it that Buhari is under pressure from external governmental forces to relieve Amaechi of his duties due to the immense allegations of corruption against him.

There were indications weekend that President Muhammadu Buhari is under pressure from the foreign community to sack his Minister of Transport and former Rivers state governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi following his indictment for corruption by the Justice George Omeregi-led Rivers State Judicial Commission of Inquiry, set up to investigate the sale of state assets and the consequent Whitepaper issued by the state government.

On a related note, the federal administration was said to be uncomfortable with unpleasant reports about the disposition of the current Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Lawal Babachir and the President’s Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari. The President is reportedly disposed to easing them out of office.

The president is said to be under intense pressure to drop allegedly corrupt appointees from his cabinet to successfully prosecute his administration’s anti-graft war.

A Western diplomat who confided in Nigerian Pilot disclosed that “there is now increased and general erosion of confidence in the president’s ability to prosecute his administration’s anti-graft war. He added that, “about five senior diplomats have had reason to pass similar observations to the presidency after the Rivers state government Whitepaper that indicted your minister of Transport, Amaechi over alleged corruption during his years as governor.”

“If I can recall very vividly, they told the president that until people like Amaechi in his government are excused from government to defend the telling allegations against him, the corruption fight will not be taken seriously,” he further said.

The declaration by the diplomats he said was buoyed by a letter written by Governor Nyesom Wike to foreign missions and Embassies detailing findings and related documentary evidences including the government Whitepaper of the Justice George Omeregi commission probe report on the state’s finances during the Amaechi years as governor.

Rivers state’s Commissioner of Housing, Emma Okah, who spoke on behalf of the State Government, who spoke to journalists in Port Harcourt last year on the foregoing report had disclosed that the state’s Attorney-General had been mandated to start all legal processes against Amaechi; a former military administrator of Rivers State, Brigadier Anthony Ukpo (Rtd) and some other former political office holders to refund over N97 billion allegedly misappropriated in the sale of the state’s valued assets.

 

Tori News

Shocking! I Left Over N8Billion For Nyesom Wike – Amaechi

The immediate past governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, has refuted claims by his successor, Nyesom Wike, that he left an empty treasury after his administration.

Mr. Amaechi was responding to claims by Opunabo Inko-Tariah, Mr. Wike’s Spokesperson, during a radio programme in Port Harcourt on Wednesday that his principal met an empty treasury when he took over government.

A total of N7.5 billion cash were left behind as balances in the State Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) account with Skye Bank, FAAC account with Zenith Bank, balances with Access Bank and funds in the State reserve fund account in First Bank,” Mr. Amaechi said in a statement by his media office, Thursday.

This is besides other balances in the state Government House account with Zenith Bank and other government MDA accounts, like the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).

By the time you pull all these together, we are looking at readily available cash in the region of eight to ten billion naira left for the Wike administration.”

Mr. Wike, who defeated who defeated Dakuku Peterside of Mr. Amaechi’s All Progressives Con‎gress, has consistently stated that he met an empty treasury upon assumption of office.

The governor belongs to the Peoples Democratic Party.

Last June, barely one month after taking over as governor, Mr. Wike had said that only one revenue account with Sterling Bank had some funds left by Mr. Amaechi’s administration.

I want to say on good authority that we did not meet N7 billion, as being speculated. The state’s FAAC account as at May 29 was in debit. That was the briefing I received from the Accountant-General,” Mr. Wike had said during a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the state government, Julius Berger Plc, and CCECC for the rehabilitation of 33 kilometre of roads in Port Harcourt.

In his statement on Thursday, Mr. Amaechi said that he did not only leave cash for his successor but also economic assets.

These assets that are scattered in diverse sectors of the economy were developed or built or procured with revenue that accrued to the state during Amaechi’s tenure,” the former governor said.

The assets belong to Rivers State, not Amaechi. Some of these assets are presently yielding revenue to the state coffers, and many can be easily and readily converted to cash, if the State so desires.

Mr. Amaechi further stated that it was “disingenuous and fraudulent” for Mr. Wike to claim that he met an empty treasury to justify the N30 billion loans he took within his first 30 days in office.

Rather than this puerile and silly distraction of always pointing accusing fingers at Amaechi, Wike should come out to explain to Rivers people what he took the loans for, account for and justify every kobo that has been spent from the loans.”

ritanaija.com

Amaechi Holds Thanksgiving To Mark Tenure End

 

Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, on Sunday, May 17, 2015, attended an interdenominational church service thanksgiving to mark the completion of his tenure in office. 

 

 

 

 

The service which was organized by All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the state, Dakuku Peterside was well attended by members of the party.
Amaechi, wife and the other members of the APC assembled at the Obi Wali International Conference Centre in Port Harcourt, the state capital to celebrate God for the successful administration.

Meanwhile the poilitical war between President Goodluck Jonathan’s and Rotimi Amaechi may have finally ended. 

 

READ MORE: Naij.com