10th October, 2022
The Legacy Group, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), aligned to Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, immediate past Minister of Transportation, has taken a swipe at the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, describing his style of politics as dirty, vengeful and oppressive.
The group made the assertion in reaction to the motion of the River State House of Assembly de-recognizing Sir Celestine Omehia as a former Governor of the state, a resolution that was speedily assented to by Wike.
A statement issued by the group’s Director, Public Communications, Achinike Owhomka, and titled “Governor Nyesom Wike: When Illegality Trumps Common-Sense”, reads: “In a desperate move to ridicule the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the people of Rivers State, the Rivers State House of Assembly in blatant legislative rascality assented to by the governor of Rivers State, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, an acclaimed lawyer by training and a member of the Nigerian Body of Benchers, disregarded the apex court judgement in the case of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi versus INEC and 2 others in which the court clearly ruled and stated that, ‘in the eyes of the law, Omehia was never a candidate in the election, much less a winner’, and passed a mindless resolution on June 30, 2015 recognising Sir Celestine Omehia as a former governor of Rivers State. The house went further to restore all the privileges and entitlements accruing to former Rivers State governors to him.
“Emboldened by impunity, lawlessness, and an inexcusable abuse of power, the illegality of this extra-judicial decision was published in the official gazette of the state, No.5, Volume 52, of March 2016 and signed by Governor Nyesom Wike who at the time was in cahoots with Celestine Omehia. All these were done to ‘pepper Amaechi’, their mutual political enemy whose only crime was his quest for a Rivers of possibilities for all sons and daughters of the state. While this unholy romance between Omehia and Wike lasted, Omehia was cashing out from the state treasury as credit alerts as per his new status as ‘former governor’ dropped monthly to the tune of about 700 million naira.
“Fast forward to May 28, 2022, when Atiku Abubakar emerged as the PDP presidential candidate and dealt Wike a veteran’s blow below the belt when Wike’s ally Aminu Tambuwal withdrew last minute from the race to support Atiku denying Wike any whiff of the presidential ticket in the ‘obscenely monetized’ process, according to Mohammed Hyaat-Deen. Wike’s shot at the presidency was further blocked by Atiku’s adamant refusal to pick him as his Vice-presidential candidate. A move that has left Wike politically decimated, heartbroken and a menace at governance, a role which he has never been fit for.
“Vengeful and vendetta-driven, Wike has doubled down to political witch-hunting of the opposition at home and those he perceive as political betrayers and enemies. Top on Wike’s list are his former henchmen who have switched loyalty to Atiku Abubakar, one of whom is notably, Sir Celestine Omehia among others.
“As it was on October 7, 2007, the day the Supreme court de-recognised Sir Celestine Omehia as governor of Rivers State, so it was for him on October 7, 2022, exactly 15 years later, when the Rivers State House of Assembly at the behest of Governor Wike, in a laughable and shameful move for supposedly responsible lawmakers and representatives of constituencies and constituents in need of quality representation, again decided to reverse its erroneous resolution to recognise Omehia as former governor, reverting to the same Supreme court judgement it once undermined despite the constitutional provision of Section 287 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which provides that ‘the decisions of the Supreme Court shall be enforced in any part of the federation by all authorities and persons, and by, courts and subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Supreme Court.’
“This is Wike’s style of politics; roguish, dirty, lawless, vengeful and oppressive. To Nyesom Wike, governance is pointless and politics is all about using the might of the system and the commonwealth of Rivers people to fight his enemies within and outside the state.
“With his signing into law of Executive order 21 banning the use of public school premises for political campaigns except otherwise approved by the Ministry of Education with a down payment of unrefundable sum of N5 million naira for repairs of damages if any to the school property by the political party, Wike has further displayed his mortal fear for healthy competition, his penchant for gutter politics and his disposition to despotism and tyranny in his quest for political relevance. But Wike and the PDP, no matter how hard they try, will be stopped at the polls come 2023, when Rivers’ people will emphatically say NO to any allegiance or referendum in remote support of Wike and his cohorts.”