"I Joined APC With The Interest To Protect Rivers People" - Amaechi
Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has said that he joined the All Progressives
Congress (APC) with the overall interest to protect Rivers people.
Amaechi also said that Rivers State has suffered neglect under the
Jonathan administration
He also said part of the decision to join the APC was because the
issues raised by G7 governors were not resolved by President Goodluck
Jonathan and the PDP.
Amaechi spoke with journalists at the Port Harcourt International
Airport shortly on arrival from Abuja, Tuesday
He said: "Yes, we have joined APC after the meeting we had with
Buhari, Tinubu and the interim Chairman of APC."
"The governors met on Monday and decided that we must meet with the
APC leadership and when we met with the APC leadership, it was
important we took a position and the position we took is for the good
of our democracy and ensure that Nigeria moves forward. We can't
continue the way we are, where we are.
"The picture painted by the PDP was as if we were begging to come back
to PDP and issues were not being looked into, issues were not being
resolved and it's important that we resolve it one way or the other".
"I think that what has happened is that what was then new PDP decided
that it's important that we move into APC and position ourselves for
the next election".
"Rivers State must know that for me to have taken that decision, I had
looked at the general interests of Rivers people. I was not elected to
lead Nigeria, I was elected to lead Rivers State and I had looked at
the interests of Rivers people and have seen that these interests were
not protected in PDP. I have seen the fact that we are losing our oil
wells in Etche, in the Kalabari areas and that the more they continue
to pilfer these oil wells, the more we will continue to lose our
wealth", he said.
Despite his defection to the APC, Amaechi said he still holds
President Jonathan in high esteem and has no personal quarrel with
him.
"The President and I have no personal quarrel, it's important we put
that in perspective. All the issues were issues that affect Rivers
people, were issues that affect Nigerians and I am a Nigerian, I have
to address those issues…he is my President and I respect him. I
respect his office, respect him as a person, respect the fact that
he's older but then as elected governor of Rivers State, I have the
responsibility to lead Rivers State".
'If you look at what is going on, the federal government is not able
to fund the states anymore. They say oil theft but oil theft is not
enough reason for which we cannot fund ourselves."
He drew the attention to the Port Harcourt International Airport,
which the Federal Government has long abandoned because of its
inability to fund the project.
"As per development in Rivers State, we are about to commission about
300 primary schools, we are about to commission another 70 health
centres to add to the 60 we commissioned before. We are about to
commission the Kelsey Harrison hospital at Emenike Street, there is a
new one inside Rivers State University of Science and Technology
Campus, there is a partnership between us and NDDC for which we have
paid NDDC about N960 million for the mother and child hospital and
NDDC is expected to bring about N900 million to make it N1.8 billion
for the hospital. The stadium is about to be completed, so development
is actually going on. We are working".
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