The governor of Rivers State Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has said it would be very difficult for any political party to win the People Democratic Party (PDP) in the state considering that the state is a PDP state and coupled with his achievement within his short period in office.
Governor Wike spoke Monday while answering questions as a guest in Channels Television morning Programme viewed from Government House Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.
Answering questions in some of the issues affecting the state and the recent conduct of the rerun election, the governor said the people of the state were determine to vote for PDP in all the constituencies in the state because of his achievement in the past few months in office.
He said in spite of the poor allocation to the state, he was able to handle some of the road projects and completed some even when there were a lot of distractions that could made him to abandon his campaigns promises to the people.
He noted that the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state have increase from 4 billion to N9-N10 billion, adding that if there were high rate of insecurity in the state as being reported the IGR wouldn’t have increase because the investors would have run away.
Governor Wike said: “Why it is difficult for anybody to win us in Rivers State is because the projects I have done in my short stay in office coupled that the state is a PDP state. The civil servants are happy with us, nobody will be happy when at the end of the months they cannot take their wages home.
“We have done a lot to fulfill over campaign promises, If you go to Borokiri where the former governor was living at Okaki street, everybody was afraid to go there because of bad roads but today we have fixed the road and the people are happy.
“In Diobu axis we have a lot of bad roads before now, today we have fixed them. All the general hospitals are dead, some of the health centres are not functioning. What we are trying to do as a matter of policy is to pick one hospital each in the three senatorial districts and equip them.
“We are also going to train and retrain our doctors, for now we are focusing on health and education. We don’t want to carry all at the same time. We received 4 Billion as allocation when our salary wage is N5. 5 billion. How do make up to pay salaries, when we took over I have IGR of 4-5 billion but I speak to you we have improved in our IGR to N9-N10 billion.
“Which means nobody is running away from the state, because if people were leaving the state our IGR would not increase. And if the insecurity is much as is being claimed, why is our IGR increasing yet if you read on the pages of newspapers people will say Rivers of blood.”
Wike who vowed not to venture into completion of the monorail project said Rivers people and stakeholders have told him to forget about the project and focus on the project that has direct meaning on the lives of the people of the state.
He said the monorail project which he claimed has no meaning on the lives of the people have consumed over N45 billion, stressing further that he does not want to have headache speaking on monorail issue which he described as an elephant project.
On the issue of insecurity in the state, governor Wike accused the Minister of Transportation Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of trying to destabilize the state through his desperation to capture Rivers State even when it is clear to him that his party cannot win PDP in the state.
He said if President Mohammadu Buhari supports him there is no reason why he cannot achieve peace and stability in the state.
But he regretted that continue changing of his security chiefs would jeopardize his plan to tackle the security challenges in the state because there was no time for security chiefs to strategize and plan on how to deal with the pressing issue.
“The continue removal of the Commissioner of Police (CP) the Director of State Security Service (DSS) and other security chiefs in the state is to frustrate our effort. Of course, the Minister is behind this, and people are saying we should reconcile, in what way?
“That means if I reconcile with him they would not be removing my security chiefs that was why I said we are personalizing this, it shouldn’t be. If there is need that we should come together to talk, but we should not be desperate to take over the state. As far as I am concern, I don’t want to assert that kind of responsibility.
“But the issue of security is not political, we are fighting to stop this situation and there is a system trying to desterilize the state by removing the Commissioner of Police at all time, this is a man who has serve as governor for eight years and speaker for eight years what has the state not done for him.”
“As far as I am concern the Federal government should support me by leaving the security chief for quite some time to strategies and plan for the security problem in the state. The only problem we have with the election is for the umpire to say we must be fair to all. Security people should not be use to manipulate the process.
“INEC should stop employing those who in one way or the other have interest in political party that is the way we can maintain peace. The security should always protect the people and the materials and not to involve in the manipulation of the process.”
“For me what I see is the desperation to take over Rivers. There are certain things I shouldn’t say because it has to do with security but it must not be business as usual. We are telling the security personnel to go all out against the cultists and kidnappers that is why I don’t think there is any state that is investing what we are investing in security in Rivers State.”
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