BEVERLY HILLS, January 28, (THEWILL) – Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, has declared the N82 million spent by the previous administration to host the Noble Laureate, Wole Soyinka on his 80th birthday as a ‘crime against the Rivers people.’
Speaking to journalists in the state at the NUJ House, Port Harcourt, Austin Tam-George, commissioner of information and communications, said the matter was not rested but that the file had been handed over to the ‘appropriate agency’ for further action.
Tam-George revealed that the action was not intended to embarrass the sage, but that the Chibuike Amaechi administration had no mandate to spend such an amount on Soyinka.
The commissioner, who addressed the press in reaction to the Supreme Court judgement that upheld Wike’s election despite two previous annulments by lower courts, said the amount was spent at a time people were dying of hunger and disease in Rivers State.
“It is a financial crime. There is a moral obligation on the part of Soyinka not to allow the money be spent on him. There is a moral accounting to be done. The governor is taking it seriously and anyone found to be liable in that matter would be held accountable,” he said.
Smarting from a Supreme Court victory on the validity of the governor’s election, the government also said it would treat abandoned projects in the state as crime against the people, not just as mere abandoned projects, naming the monorail project as one of them.
He said it was a crime to waste N60Bn on the monorail project and that such matters would not go unpunished. He said the Wike administration would go after the principal members of the Amaechi administration despite the olive branch extended to members of the opposition in the state.
He said the Supreme Court verdict had re-validated the victory Wike got in April 2015, and that the fight was over. Commending the apex court, the commissioner warned the people of the state on the possibility of reactionary forces in the state.
He disclosed that the government’s aim is to move fast in mechanised agriculture, aggressive road construction (federal or state), job creation, and total development of the state. “The single agenda of this administration is development and nothing more”.
Story by David Oputah
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