…Says Gov Fubara scored zero because the spending is from illegal budget
Tony Okocha, arrowhead of the opposition in Rivers State, has again dared Gov Siminalayi Fubara to throw the first stone in his threat to probe ex-governor, Nyesom Wike.
Okocha, caretaker committee chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), reminded Fubara that he who goes to equity must go with clean hands, implying that whatever Wike did was done in collusion with Fubara who was then the accountant-general of the state and head of cash movements.
Okocha, seen as Wike’s vice grip of the APC in the state, addressed a press briefing in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, where he said it was not true that Wike was now quiet since probe was mentioned.
He said that no public office holder should think he would not face probe after office. He said the governor should first drop his immunity before starting a probe because if Wike mentioned him as a witness, the law may not allow him to appear because of immunity clause.
He also laughed off the probe talk saying Fubara was yet to vacate the court order that prevented state governors and former governors of the state from being probed.
He also said it was obvious Fubara was targeting Wike as he said Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi targeted his predecessor (Peter Odili) while Wike targeted Amaechi.
“You know the governors pass something to the probe panels and their target must be found guilty. Will Fubara’s be different from Wike?”
Repeating his zero scorecard of Fubara in 365 days, Okocha, who has been calling the governor’s impeachment since March 2024, said the governor’s huge projects amounted to zero so long as the budget from which he spends is considered illegitimate for not being tabled before the defected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
He dared Fubara or his handlers to show one project he initiated, supervised, and commissioned. He insisted that all projects commissioned by Fubara were Wike’s, his anger being that Fuabara did not credit Wike as initiator. He called it project plagiarism.
“If any media man or government official can show the world any single project Fubara started and finished in his first year, I would apologise to him and congratulate him for one year in office”.
When the Elelenwo-Ebubu-Eleme Road of about N6.4Bn was mentioned, Okocha claimed it was conceived by Wike and that after commissioning by Fubara, the rain came and washed it away.
He also claimed that all the mega roads amounting to N501.2Bn (trans-Kalabari, PH Ring Road, Omoku Egbeda-Elele Road) were all started by Wike, so Fubara has no right to claim them as his projects. He however admitted that there was nothing wrong in continuity or completing inherited projects, so long as the governor would credit the previous administration.
He did not accept that Fubara inherited debts on projects (N225bn), saying such claims just reared ugly head. He said Fubara was making big money such as N27bn per month from internally generated revenue (IGR) and much more from the federation account (FAAC), saying paying pension or promoting workers were no achievements.
Okocha who could not claim that the defected lawmakers were his APC members now as he used claim openly said only membership card and name in a party’s register would prove the party the one belonged, thus lending credence that the APC has vomited the defected lawmakers back to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said it was a lie from the pit of hell to say he had fallen out with Wike and had congratulated Fubara. “How can I as Okocha as a person or as leader of the APC ever congratulate such a governor?” He said he has issued a statement denying such fake news.