• Denies bid for vice presidency
TO douse the controversy over the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Rivers State helmsman, Chibuike Amaechi, has offered to resign.
But this is with a condition: If the 19 governors who voted for him asked him to quit.
Amaechi like Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang is claiming to have won the election for the chairmanship of the NGF.
The position of Amaechi was disclosed yesterday by his Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari.
According to the governor, those who are accusing him of nursing a vice presidential ambition are mischievous since there has not been any formal declaration by him in that regard.
Semenitari told journalists in Port Harcourt Wednesday that Nigerians were aware of the democratic process in which Amaechi emerged as the chairman of the NGF and that the governor is someone who does not treat a democratic process with levity.
According to her, Amaechi remains the authentic chairman of the NGF, but if his colleagues, especially those who voted for him insist that he should step down in a bid to pave the way for peace in the forum, he will step down.
“If all the governors decide, especially those who voted for Governor Amaechi, that he should step down, naturally, he will concede to his colleagues,” she said.
On the issue of reconciliation between President Goodluck Jonathan and the governor, the commissioner stated that there had been meaningful discussion between both leaders.
She denied an allegation that Amaechi was planning to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because of his difficulties within it. According to her, irrespective of the governor’s suspension which is now before a court, he remains a bonafide member of the PDP.
To Semenitari, the speculation that the governor is nursing a vice presidential ambition is the work of mischief-makers who are bent on creating disaffection between him and the Presidency. She said that the governor had never told anyone that he would be vying for vice presidency in 2015.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Leyii Kwanee, has urged youths to support Amaechi in what he described as a critical moment of his political career.
He advised the leadership of PDP at the national level to disregard those who were feeding it with the wrong information that they could do without the governor.
According to him, the option left for PDP if they are interested in Rivers State is to intervene and have an amicable solution because the people that are deceiving them are mere paper tigers in the state’s politics.
He said that the House leader, Chidi Lloyd, was psychologically tortured while in police detention. He disclosed that Lloyd’s doctors were working to stabilise him, after which the necessary arrangements would be made to fly him abroad for proper medical attention.
“Honourable Chidi Lloyd was in a very bad state of health and there is the plan to fly him out of the country. Currently, the leader’s health is still unstable, that is why we have not been able to do anything as it relates to taking him overseas. The leader was not just physically tormented, he was also psychologically tormented. So, he is not in a stable state. We do hope that the physicians that are currently handling him will be able to stabilise him,” he said.
He added: “As soon as that is done, like I said before now, we intend to approach the same judge that has granted him bail to look at the issue of his international passport which he was ordered to deposit with the court and there is likely going to be a waiver because we need to get him out of this country so that he can be properly taken care of medically,” Kwanee said
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