Amaechi made this remark on Friday, while speaking to newsmen in Port
Harcourt, the state capital.
The governor said with the exodus of PDP members to the All
Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party was on its way out of
power.
According to a Nigeria Eye report:
He said, 'Most of you may have known that I have since left the PDP
to a better party called the All Progressives Congress because the PDP
is a drowning party and the facts remain that PDP is a drowning party.
'Watch out before March if we don't have the numbers that we are
looking for. So, you can't call us opposition anymore because there
are three arms of government and only two are electable; the executive
and legislature.
'Yes, the PDP has the national executive, but we are inching close
to having the legislature. Who then would be called the opposition if
we have it'
Amaechi, who predicted that more governors would defect to the APC in
2014, disclosed that one of the reasons why he left the PDP was as a
result of the attempt by President Goodluck Jonathan's wife, Mrs.
Patience Jonathan, to interfere in the governance of Rivers State.
He also cited the ceding of Rivers resources to other states, the
absence of Federal Government projects in the state and bad governance
as the reasons why he dumped the PDP.
'But the basic reason why we left is the resources of Rivers State.
I have told all of you on several occasions that the wife of the
President was not elected the governor of Rivers State. I am the
governor of Rivers State and husband to Judith Amaechi.
'I left because of the attempt by the wife of the President to
micromanage governance in Rivers. I said no, you can't; so that if I
fail, they will not say the wife of the President failed, Governor
Amaechi failed. I am accountable to God and to men and women,' he
added.
Amaechi, however, said Nigerian politicians were averse to telling the
truth and blamed Nigerians for the lack of interest in knowing the
truth.
Recalling his claim that the Federal Government could not account for
the sum of $49.8 bn and N2.3 trn oil subsidy, Amaechi said governors,
at a time, refused to collect their states' monthly allocations for
three months.
He said, 'When the politician reel out numbers, you should hold him
accountable to the numbers he has reeled out. If you don't hold them
accountable, he will just say anything he likes.
'When I said the Federal Government could not account for $49.8 bn,
they said, Amaechi, how did you know and I pulled out the letter and
said the authority is the CBN governor.
'So, let him deny it. When I said they could not account for N2.3
trn for oil subsidy, they say what is your source I was in the
meeting with the President. We told the President that under General
Obasanjo, the total oil money was N300 bn. The first year of President
Goodluck Jonathan, 2011, oil subsidy became N2.3 trn. Did we buy more
machines, expanded Nigeria'
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
