Vote out PDP, secure your future, Amaechi tells voters

Vote out PDP, secure your future, Amaechi tells voters

THE Rivers State Governor and Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has called on the people of the state to vote out the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government in the 2015 elections to secure their future.
Amaechi said the PDP had nothing to offer the Kalabari people and maintained that the only way for the people to regain their lost oil wells and benefit from democratic governance was to vote out the PDP.
The governor spoke at Degema Local Government Area of the state after inaugurating an 8,000 capacity football stadium complex built by the local government.
Amaechi explained that President Goodluck Jonathan was taking sides in the Soku oil wells dispute, saying, “In the meeting before Kalabari chiefs, Mr. President said to us, ‘you people call it Soku, we from Bayelsa call it Oluasiri’. Is Soku Oluasiri?,” Amaechi queried.
The governor, who noted that the people of the state had no faith in the President to return the oil wells, also explained that the revenue from the oil wells was already being spent by Bayelsa because they were in the Presidency.
He stressed that the opportunity before the peoples of the state was to vote President Jonathan out of power, adding that the President would not serve the interest of Rivers people.
“As President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he is not supposed to take sides. The moment he said it (disputed oil wells) is called Oluasiri, he is taking sides and we have no faith in Mr. President returning our oil wells.
“They have taken the (Soku) oil wells; they are spending the money because they have the Presidency. The only way you can get back your oil wells is to vote out Mr. President.
“The only opportunity you have now is your vote. Vote him out, he is not from Rivers, he is from Bayelsa. He has not and will not serve us and I have said here, let Mr. President tell us what he has done for us,” he said.
Amaechi expressed regret that his efforts to build the Trans-Kalabari Road in the state and reconstruct the Emohua-Abonnema federal road currently in a deplorable condition was frustrated by President Jonathan.
Calling on the people to fight for their rights by using their voting strength to push out the ruling PDP, the governor recalled that the President specifically told him not to work on the road since it was a federal road.
He said, “When I was coming here (Degema), I saw the Emohua-Abonnema Road, it is going bad. When I met the President with Kalabari chiefs and I told the President; ‘that road is going very bad, if we don’t intervene now, that road will soon be impassable. Mr. President, that road is a federal road’, and he said, he knew.
“I then asked, ‘Mr. President, can the Rivers State Government reconstruct that road because that is the only road by which Kalabari people come out to town?’ But Mr. President said no.
“He told me no and said he (Federal Government) would do it. One year plus, he has not done it. So, what you will do to make sure you have a road next year is to vote out the PDP. If Mr. President says he is our brother; because I hear Kalabari people say he is our brother, let him do our road, let him return our Soku oil wells.”
Amaechi also recalled that he had appealed to the President to use N50bn out of the N105bn the Federal Government was allegedly owing the state government to repair the Trans-Kalabari Road.
“I begged him (President Jonathan) that the Federal Government is owing Rivers State N105bn; he should take N50bn from there and help me construct Trans-Kalabari Road. He said ‘Amaechi, I will do it.’
“Three years after, Mr. President has not done it. So, he is not a Kalabari man. Don’t follow your brothers, who want to be governor and all that and because of their personal, selfish interests, they want to sell the Kalabari Kingdom.
“You are the youth, defend your kingdom. Nobody should take away what belongs to you. The Kalabari people are known to fight for their right. They are people who can stand up to any challenge to protect themselves and their people. One way to defend your kingdom is to vote out those who don’t have your interest at heart,” the governor added.
On the inaugurated project, Amaechi commended the Degema Council Chairman, Ibigoni Daddy Pokima, for constructing the state-of-the-art sports complex named after the late Tonye Harry; the immediate-past Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.