The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi
Amaechi, said on Thursday that he did not
receive over N3tn allocation as governor of
Rivers State.
He said therefore he never squandered such
amount as alleged by his successor,
Nyesom Wike.
Amaechi said this at a stakeholders’ a
stakeholder’s meeting on the London
Summit on Anti-Corruption and the Open
Government Partnership.
The event was co-organised by the Federal
Ministry of Justice and the United
Kingdom’s Department for International
Development, Justice For All project.
Amaechi said the Rivers State people were
aware of how much he received while he
was governor, adding that his successor
was only fabricating lies against him.
He said, “Within that period we insisted on
engaging the indigenous communities on
how much we received and how we spent
the money.
“That is why I feel that after this ministerial
appointment, I should do everything possible
to stay away from government because in
spite of all the forms of transparency I
introduced in government, one man could
begin to tell lies to Nigerians and Nigerians
believe him.
“The governor of Rivers State said I
squandered N3tn. I did not receive up to
N1.8tn as governor both from IGR and funds
from federal allocation. So, how could I have
squandered money I did not even receive in
the first place? You can see the politics of
lies and lies.”
Amaechi insisted that he was not corrupt
and challenged anybody to bring up
evidence to the contrary.
He said, “As Minister of Transportation, I run
an open and transparent system. I believe in
name and shame.
“What name and shame does is, if you name
and shame those of them who don’t have
conscience they won’t come to public
functions.
“I do have conscience. In fact, it was the
word corruption that brought me to this
occasion because I wanted to see who will
get up and say to me, ‘this is evidence that
you are corrupt.’
“We went to court against the Rivers State
government on their allegation of corruption
against me. The Court of Appeal said,
produce that document that found this man
(Amaechi) guilty of those crimes and up till
today he (Wike) has not produced it.”
Earlier, in his speech the Attorney General
and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami,
said, “ As you are all aware, President Buhari
made fighting corruption one of the pillars of
this administration’s policy. Since assuming
office, every effort has been made to build
on and expand on what was initiated by
previous governments. Amongst these key
priorities is the need to recover stolen funds
and to pay back to the Nigerian society what
they have lost to corruption.
“You may recall that during the London
Anti-Corruption Summit, President
Muhammadu Buhari presented a country
statement on actions that would be
implemented by the government of Nigeria
on anti-corruption reforms.”
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