Wike financially reckless, must be kicked out of Rivers in 2019 – Peterside

Monday, August 13, 2018 8:02 am

Wike and Peterside

Okafor Ofiebor /Port-Harcourt

Ahead of 2019 General elections in Rivers State, Dr Dakuku Peterside, the Director General of Nigerian Maritime and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and the former governorship candidate of All Progressive Congress, APC, has vowed that no matter the seeming crisis in party in the state one goals that all members party have resolved is that the Governor Nyesom Wike must be kicked out from office in the 2019 general election.

Peterside who spoke to a cross section of journalists in Port-Harcourt on Sunday claimed that the administration of Nyesom Wike’s has plunged the state to its lowest ebb, especially in display of financial recklessness that has never been witnessed before despite the huge resources accruing to the state through the federal allocations and the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.

He said for the past three years under the watch Governor Wike, all tenets of transparency in governance have been thrown into the winds.

“From the available statistics, Rivers State is at the bottom of the ladder. It is the only state where the contracts are not advertised, the only state whose budgets for 2016, 2017 and 2018 cannot be found in the public domain.

“Governor Wike is the only one who has access to state budgets, state IGR. Even his Commissioners in is cabinet do not know how contracts are awarded. Some of them confided in me that they can hardly pay their children’s school fees.

According the NIMASA boss, “Wike may have blocked the all the loopholes, but he is the main pipeline in the leakage”.

He accused Wike of embarking on a deliberate policy of scaring away investors, major firms and business interests in droves due to induced insecurity and multiple taxation.

The former APC governorship candidate said a random check in the state capital showed the hoteliers are groaning due to lack of patronage.

He added that agricultural sector which is highest source of employment for the youthful population all over the world as been neglected by the Wike’s government who he also accused of failure to initiate any new policy in the sector.

He blamed the media for the hype that the Wike’s administration is enjoying and the impression that he is a ‘performing Governor.’

“Besides completing the projects of the previous administrations, Wike has not initiated any project except investigating a huge chunk of the resources of the state on the judiciary. All other sectors have been abandoned.”

He said the so-called ‘development projects’ of the Wike’s administration being blown out of proportion by the media to the world are completion of old projects located in Obio-Akpor and Port Harcourt council areas.

Peterside vowed that APC will galvanize Rivers people to kick out governor in 2019 polls.