By Charles Igbo
A former Transportation Minister, Dr Abiye Sekibo, has tackled the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, over claims by the Governor that he awarded Sekibo contracts worth over five billion Naira.
Wike has, during the swearing-in ceremony of his newly appointed 319 Ward and 32 Constituency Liason Officers, a couple of days ago, in Porthacourt, lamented that Sekibo turned against him even after he, Wike, awarded him contracts to the tune of N5.5 billion.
The two of them were very close political allies but they fail apart over Sekibo’s support for the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, a man Wike has been at loggerheads with since after Atiku beat him to a respectable second place at the PDP Presidential Primary, and went on to choose Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate instead of the very expectant Wike.
Sekibo is the Rivers State Coordinator for the Atiku Presidential Council.
Wike, who had earlier written Sekibo off as a man without political consequence, who, as Transportation Minister, attracted nothing to Rivers State or even to his Okrika hometown, listed the contracts he awarded Sekibo as follows: *N2.1bn Okrika Sand filling contract, *N2bn Okochiri internal road contract, *N1.4bn contract for the Okujaku Street, Danjuma Drive, Trans-Amadi, Porthacourt.
But Sekibo has denied any such contract awards by Wike to him, and has demanded a public apology in a national newspaper.
He said all he did, at the Governor’s request, especially since two of those contracts are located in his hometown, was to recommend contractors to the Governor.
A statement by Sekibo’s lawyer, Christian Elenwo, explained thus: “Ordinarily, our Client would not deem it necessary to respond to these deliberately orchestrated falsehoods primarily targeted to tarnish and destroy the hard-earned reputation of our client.
“However, our client, since the release of the false statement by Governor Wike has been inundated with phone calls from different people all over the country to find out the truth or otherwise of these allegations. We have our client’s instruction to state the truth and correct facts as follows.
“Our client is not a contractor, and has never been awarded any of the above contracts by the Rivers State Government. The contracts were awarded to Gascon Ltd, and our client is neither a Director nor a Shareholder in Gascon Ltd.
“Due to the cordial relationship our client had with the Governor, coupled with the fact that two of these contracts were to be executed in our client’s hometown of Okrika, the Governor asked our client to recommend a competent company that could execute these projects. This led to our client’s recommendation of Gascon Limited to the Rivers State Government.
“Gascon Limited upon the award of these contracts immediately mobilized to the sites, and had successfully achieved 100%, 80% and 65% completion of these projects respectively to the knowledge of the Rivers State Government.
“We have our client’s further instruction to demand the immediate retraction of these false allegations and the publication of unreserved apology to our client in a national newspaper by the Governor of Rivers State.”
But many are of the view that Sekibo should have kept quiet. They say they see no difference between Wike’s claims and Sekibo’s explanation. “It is like saying there is a difference between 12 and a dozen”, a watcher of Rivers State politics said.
Another argued: “When you are not a contractor and you recommend contractors for jobs, the jobs are for you. You have a huge share or commission. I fail to understand the point Abiye Sekibo is making.”
