Rivers Re-Run: APC Plays Usual Blame Game

In preparation for the March 19th Rivers State rerun election for the House of Assembly Members, House of Representatives and the Senate, the APC have introduced their usual blame game in the State.

Just as it is played at the National Level, the Party blamed the State-ruling PDP and former President, Goodluck Jonathan for the myriads of challenges faced in the State.

They listed 24 sins committed by the ex-president, the incumbent governor, Nyesom Wike and their political party, PDP against the people of the state, urging the electorates to vote against PDP during the elections.

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The list of the 24 sins allegedly jointly committed by GEJ, and Governor Nyesom Wike is contained in a statement issued by the party’s state chairman, Davies Ikanya, in Port Harcourt, the state capital on Wednesday March 16th

1. President Jonathan failed to muster the courage and political will in a PDP-controlled National Assembly to see to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in the over six years of his administration to demonstrate his hatred for the Niger Delta region knowing that communities in Rivers State will benefit from the bill.

2 The East/West Road, especially Eleme-Onne axis in Rivers State, was not only abandoned but was a nightmare to travellers and commuters.

3 Bodo-Bonny Federal Road was completely abandoned just because it is situated in Rivers State.

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4. Refusal to refund to the State Government over 90 billion naira used in the dualisation of Ikwerre-Owerri Road approved by late President Yar’Adua and other Federal Roads in the State executed by the State to ease the sufferings of the people of Rivers State.

5. Wickedly stopped Train 7 at NLNG Bonny and the loss of jobs to our people and revenue to Government.

6 Non-implementation of UNEP Report on the clean-up of Ogoni land despite all the pleas by our people and the International Community – just to punish the Ogonis and Rivers State irrespective of their overwhelming support for him during the 2011 elections.

7 Lack of any visible Federal Government project in Rivers State throughout his over six years as President of Nigeria. Instructively, of all the states Dr Jonathan has visited in the course of his re-election campaign, it was only in Rivers that he could not name a single development project he initiated, not to talk of executing.

8. Ceding of oil wells belonging to Rivers to Bayelsa and Abia states to ensure that the revenue accruing to the State was reduced to nothing.

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9. Abandoned construction of the Port Harcourt International Airport after completing other airports started at the same time with it. The airport has thus become an eyesore and the worst airport in the entire world. Pictures of the current state of the Airport attached explain the level of hatred Dr Jonathan has for Rivers State and her people.

10. Turning the Port Harcourt axis of Enugu-Port Harcourt Express Road into a death trap. The pictures attached of the bad state of the road explain everything.

11. Posting and encouraging the excesses of the tyrannical Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu during his inglorious days in the State.

12. Supporting the impunity of daily killing, maiming of members of Rivers APC by the Police under the watch of Dan Barure then Commissioner of Police of the State

13. Supporting every imaginable act of impunity in the State, including the plot by five State Assembly members to impeach the Speaker in a House of 31 members.

14. Seizing and grounding the planes of the State for no just cause.

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15. Harassing and intimidating the then Governor of Rivers State (Rt. Hon. Amaechi) for no just cause and even supporting the splitting of the Governors Forum into two just to ensure that Governor Amaechi, who was duly elected by his colleagues, does not have an easy reign as the Chairman of the Forum.

16. Refusal to allow the then Governor of the state to construct the Federal Road that leads to the Kalabari Kingdom just to ensure that during the rainy season the Kalabaris will not have a road to their place.

17..Refusal to refund the State the money used to construct the smooth, beautiful dual carriageway from Omerelu to Port Harcourt – particularly up to the Airport Junction from Owerri in Imo State, which the Federal Government abandoned just because Rivers State people ply that road.

18. Refusal to refund the money used by Rivers State to construct the Ahoada/Elele Alimini Federal Road and the interchange (Flyover) at Obiri Ikwerre.

19. Refusal to attend to the poor state of the Onne – Port Harcourt component of the East/West Road. This is the road that services the Port Harcourt Refinery from where petroleum products are supplied to the South East and parts of the South South. That is the road that leads to the Onne Free Zone and to Okrika, the home Local Government of Dame Patience Jonathan, Nigeria’s former First Lady.

20. Turning a blind eye while his party continues to kill, bomb and disrupt APC rallies.

21. Against the spirit of equity, unity, justice and fair play, Dr Jonathan and his wife, Damee patience Jonathan imposed Chief Nyesome Wike a cancellous fellow from the Ikwerre tribe as PDP candidate and Governor of Rivers State, knowing very well that the former Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, was also of Ikwerre extraction and that with Chief Wike as Governor that the Ikwerre tribe will governed Rivers State for 16 years to the detriment of other tribes and sections of the State. This shows that Dr Jonathan and his son and unjust party do not wish Rivers State any good.

22. Former President Jonathan released all the N25 Billion that accrued from the principle of derivation from the five Soku Oil Wells that rightly belong to Rivers State kept in reserve for Rivers State and Bayelsa State were all paid to Bayelsa State his home State to prove his hatred for Rivers State

23. As a President, Dr Jonathan continued to under fund the NDDC to ensure that Rivers State and in extension the Niger Delta region is not developed, till the time he left office, over N700B owed by the Federal Government was not paid to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)

24. Refused to empower and fund the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs initiated by the Yar-Adua’s administration. The then Minister of Niger Delta once stated that the N41.7B due to the Ministry was not paid until Dr Jonathan left office to ensure that 90 percent of the projects initiated by the Ministry were not executed by the Ministry in Rivers State and other Niger Delta States

Ikanya said: “These, amongst other wicked acts against Rivers State for reasons only to be explained by Dr Jonathan are why no PDP should be voted for this Saturday’s poll.

He then said: “For the record, Dr Jonathan is from Bayelsa, a sister State to Rivers. He is married to Dame Patience Jonathan, who is from Rivers State and having schooled in UNIPORT and lectured in the State before joining politics; one would have expected him to be a key factor in the development of Rivers State after the State gave him the highest number of votes in the 2011 presidential election though not shockingly, he was the greatest undoing of his party in the 2015 general election.”

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