The political rivalry between Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Ameachi and the minister of state for Education has flare up another level as the camp of the duo have also started verbal exchanges on behalf of their bosses.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Rivers Commissioner for Agriculture, Emma Chinda who is an ally of the governor engaged the state minister’s camp in verbal war recently when he said wike is a political jobber.
“Wike is playing political gimmicks. He has just announced himself clearly as a political jobber”, he had said.
Chinda declared that the Minister of State for Education defied attempts by Amaechi to deliver Rivers State for President Goodluck Jonathan during the 2011 presidential election.
But he (Wike) is now in the fore front of the fight for the president’s reelection into office by 2015.
Chinda advised that Rivers people should not to take Wike seriously, but to continue to support the focused Amaechi’s administration in its transformational agenda.
“Wike resisted moves by Governor Ameachi to deliver Rivers State for President Jonathan in the 2011 general elections when he was the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt. The present posture of Wike is a deception to achieve his political ambition of becoming Rivers Governor in 2015.
“I still remember that in 2011, when we were doing the presidential campaigns, Wike was the person who headed a campaign against President Jonathan.
“If not for the intervention of Governor Amaechi, Dr. Jonathan would not have got many votes in Rivers State because Wike was bent on making sure that President Jonathan was not elected.
“I know that Wike does not care if President Jonathan loses the 2015 election or not. What he wants is to see how he can use Dr. Jonathan’s name to launch his own political programme in Rivers State. He should realise that Rivers people are more than that.
“We need to tell him that we have passed the era when we say: oh, this person is there, to an era when we now say: oh, road is there; health centres, schools, employment opportunities are there.”
“What kind of minister is that? We should realise that this man is just clueless and what he is doing is political jobbing”, he said.
But during an interactive session recently with reporters in Port Harcourt, the Secretary-General, Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), Samuel Nwanosike, said on behalf of Wike who is it’s patron that Amaechi and “his confused supporters should move to another political party now to test their popularity”.
“The era of money politics has gone in Rivers State. You must now be popular to win elections”, he said.
Nwanosike queried thus: “In what capacity can Emma Chinda describe Wike as a political jobber when he (Wike) facilitated his (Chinda’s) appointment as a commissioner in Rivers State?
“In 2011,Barr. Wike was the Director-General of Amaechi Campaign Organisation and he used the platform to get President Jonathan and Amaechi elected” he argued for Wike.
“Amaechi and six Northern Governors, who are now friends, wanted Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the PDP in 2011, but Chief Wike opted for Dr. Jonathan.
“Chief Wike wants change in Rivers State. He has come to liberate Rivers State from mismanagement and underdevelopment. The Minister of State for Education is not campaigning, but participating in the GDI’s thanksgiving and inauguration at the ward and LGA levels”, he stated.
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