2027 Presidency: Amaechi In Alleged Multi-Million Dollars Monorail, Gas Turbines Scandal – Rivers Gov’t White Paper
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Documents emerged on Sunday indicting former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, in the alleged sale of 70 per cent equity in the Rivers State-owned First Independent Power Limited (FIPL) Gas Turbines.
The document also accused the Amaechi administration (2007 – 2015) of violating the Rivers State Public Procurement Law in the multi-billion naira Monorail and Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte Specialist Hospital projects.
The 19-page White Paper is titled “The Judicial Commission of Enquiry for the investigation of the administration of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi on the sale of valued assets of Rivers State and other related matters under the chairmanship of Honourable Justice George Otakpo Omereji.”
In a statement to the media on the revelations contained in the document, convener of the Southern Political Progressives Amalgamation Forum (SPPAF), Fidel Anga and others, cautioned the National Working Committee (NWC), and National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) of the danger of fielding Amaechi as running mate to the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Citing the findings of the Rivers State Judicial Commission of Inquiry, SPPAF feared that the “APC-Wike machinery is fully armed with these codified administrative indictments detailed in this 19-page white paper.”
It equally warned that the alleged “diversion of over ₦3 Billion accessed from the Central Bank of Nigeria under the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), by the Amaechi administration in the state, may be deployed as another technical pre-election litigation to disqualify the party’s chances at the poll.
The statement continued in part, “As Nigeria’s political landscape undergoes rapid realignments ahead of impending electoral cycles, rumours and strategic manoeuvres suggesting a potential joint ticket between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the former Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, represent a clear and present danger to the opposition’s survival.
“SPPAF strongly counsels the ADC against endorsing, facilitating or aligning with any such political configuration.
“The core danger of bringing Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi onto a high-profile joint ticket lies in his extensive, state-documented vulnerabilities.
“The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, working hand-in-hand with President Bola Tinubu and the formidable All Progressives Congress (APC) machinery, has repeatedly vowed to politically neutralise his adversaries.
“An Atiku-Amaechi ticket plays directly into the hands of this alliance. The APC machinery does not need to defeat such a ticket at the ballot box; they are fully prepared to destroy it in the courts using the David Lyon Bayelsa Guber Precedent.
“As a stark reminder, in 2020, David Lyon won the Bayelsa gubernatorial election decisively, only to be sacked by the Supreme Court less than 24 hours before his swearing-in because his running mate presented conflicting documents with discrepant names as a joint ticket is legally indivisible, the running mate’s flaw instantly disqualified the entire victory, handing power directly to the opposition.
“By introducing Amaechi into an opposition ticket, the ADC and its partners would be adopting an administrative minefield.
“As captured in the White-Paper-Investigation-of-Amaechi, a 19-page PDF white paper that can be easily obtained from the Rivers State government for ₦500, Amaechi remains heavily encumbered by the formal findings of the Rivers State Judicial Commission of Inquiry.
“The state government’s accepted conclusions explicitly implicate his past administration in highly controversial transactions, including:
The unjustifiable sale of 70% equity in the State-owned First Independent Power Limited (FIPL) Gas Turbines.
“The flagrant violation of the Rivers State Public Procurement Law in the multi-billion Naira Monorail and Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte Specialist Hospital projects.
“The diversion of over ₦3 billion accessed from the Central Bank of Nigeria under the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS).
“The APC-Wike machinery is fully armed with these codified administrative indictments detailed in this 19-page white paper.
“The moment an Atiku-Amaechi ticket gains traction, the state apparatus will deploy technical pre-election litigations, exploiting these exact files to secure a total judicial disqualification.
“The ADC will be left holding an invalidated, collapsed ticket just before swearing-in, precisely mimicking the David Lyon disaster.
“The Southern Political Progressives Amalgamation Forum (SPPAF) urges the ADC to protect its hard-earned institutional credibility.
Do not let the party become a casualty of Nyesom Wike’s ongoing political warfare. The ADC must reject any alliance tied to heavily compromised political actors and instead focus on unassailable, legally clean candidates who cannot be dismantled by technicalities in a court of law.”
