Governor Amaechi explains why he decided to join APC

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The Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi has said that he joined the All Progressives Congress, APC, with the aim of protecting the interest of Rivers people.

Governor Amaechi also emphasized that Rivers State had suffered neglect under the Jonathan administration.
He said part of the decision to join the APC was because the issues raised by G7 governors were not resolved by President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The Governor made this known to journalists at the Port Harcourt International Airport shortly on arrival from Abuja.

He said: “Yes, we have joined APC after the meeting we had with Buhari, Tinubu and the interim Chairman of APC.

“The governors met on Monday and decided that we must meet with the APC leadership and when we met with the APC leadership, it was important we took a position and the position we took is for the good of our democracy and to ensure that Nigeria moves forward.

“We can’t continue the way we are, where we are. The picture painted by the PDP was as if we were begging to come back to PDP, and issues were not being looked into, issues were not being resolved and it’s important that we resolve it one way or the other.

“I think that what has happened is that what was then new PDP decided that it’s important that we move into APC and position ourselves for the next election.

“Rivers State must know that for me to have taken that decision, I had looked at the general interests of Rivers people. I was not elected to lead Nigeria, I was elected to lead Rivers State and I had looked at the interests of Rivers people and have seen that these interests were not protected in PDP. I have seen the fact that we are losing our oil wells in Etche, in the Kalabari areas and that the more they continue to pilfer these oil wells, the more we will continue to lose our wealth”.

However, despite his defection to the APC, Amaechi said he still held President Jonathan in high esteem and had no personal quarrel with him.

“The President and I have no personal quarrel, it’s important we put that in perspective. All the issues were issues that affect Rivers people, were issues that affect Nigerians and I am a Nigerian, I have to address those issues; he is my President and I respect him. I respect his office, respect him as a person, respect the fact that he’s older but then as elected governor of Rivers State, I have the responsibility to lead Rivers State.
“If you look at what is going on, the federal government is not able to fund the states anymore. They say oil theft, but oil theft is not enough reason for which we cannot fund ourselves.

“As per development in Rivers State, we are about to commission about 300 primary schools, we are about to commission another 70 health centres to add to the 60 we commissioned before. We are about to commission the Kelsey Harrison hospital at Emenike Street, there is a new one inside Rivers State University of Science and Technology Campus, there is a partnership between us and NDDC for which we have paid NDDC about N960 million for the mother and child hospital and NDDC is expected to bring about N900 million to make it N1.8 billion for the hospital. The stadium is about to be completed, so development is actually going on. We are working”, he added.

Governor Amaechi later hosted an extraordinary meeting with stakeholders in the state, including Local Government Chairmen and state Executive Council Members.

The Governor at the meeting assured his followers not to be deterred by the ongoing actions.

In the meantime, Members of the Peoples Democratic party, PDP and those of Grassroot Development Initiative, GDI, in Rivers State, have staged a rally in Port Harcourt celebrating the withdrawal of Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi from the party.

The PDP members numbered in their hundreds blocked the popular Aba road thereby causing heavy traffic on the road.

In a media briefing held before the rally, Secretary of the PDP in Rivers State, Ibiba Walter, said the defection of Governor Amaechi was not a surprise to the party.

Walter also stated that the party would go for a special thanksgiving service to celebrate the Governor’s defection.

Other PDP chieftains in Rivers State also said Governor Amaechi’s exit would bring respite to the party in the state.

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