« EFCC begins probe of Obasanjo, others | Main | Oil price rises to $102.6 per barrel »
March 27, 2008
Amaechi threatens to expose masterminds of political killings
Written by Jimitota Onoyume
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
GOVERNOR Rotimi Amaechi has threatened to expose those behind politically motivated killings in the state.
The governor who accused some past top government functionaries in the state of trying to run down his administration challenged them to a public debate.
According to him, the debate will make the state and the nation to know whether he had ever willfully killed anybody. “We want to run an all-inclusive government but those who have not come in want to be in power for life.
They don’t see why they should not be in government. They are writing and taking adverts against us. They should continue and we will ignore them.
“We challenge those writing against us to a public debate. We challenge them. I have never willfully killed anybody. I challenge them to come and say same. And we will say who killed who”.
Promising to run a transparent government Amaechi said his administration had received over N68 billion in the last five months.
He said the state money would be used for the state. “I have always said that Rivers money is for Rivers people”.
He urged the state House of Assembly to pass this year’s budget before them so that his administration could fully swing into action.
He spoke of plans to develop two new cities for the state, saying already his administration had gone into public-private partnership with a Canadian firm to build a one thousand two hundred bed space hospital to be named after Justice Karibi Whyte.
The project which would cost $98 million he said would be shared by the state government and the firm in the ratio of forty/sixty percent. Still on health, he said his administration would reconstruct hospitals at Okrika , Isiokpo, Degema, etc.
Continuing, he renamed Ateke’s Evil forest in Okrika to God's Forest, and said a health centre would be erected there. On roads, he said the design of the Port Harcourt ring road which the government is handling in partnership with African Finance Corporation would cost $700 million. And it would be ready by next month.
Out of this money the state government is to pay 40% while AFC would take charge of the rest. He said this road would take about 24 months to complete. And toll would be charged on it so that the private partner could recover their investment.
He said the government had also concluded with Sky bank to provide buses to run the state transport scheme. On the power project inherited from the administration of Governor Peter Odili he said his government would drive it to completion just as he spoke extensively on the road rehabilitation and construction work of his government.
The governor said the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by his government would also revisit the issue of the defunct wonder bank ran by Umana Umana where depositors funds from the state disappeared. He said the essence was to determine whose responsibility it is to pay back the missing funds.
Posted by Publisher at March 27, 2008 09:30 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

