Revealed: Vice President, How Buhari Shocked Amaechi

By Bayo Bernard

Sometimes ago, Rotimi Amaechi, Nyesom Wike and Magnus Abe were like three legs of a tripod in the Dr. Peter Odili political dynasty.  But the umbilical cord that once held the three former allies together has since been broken over who will control the state.

The crisis of confidence among the trio has now worsened following revelations by Senator Magnus Abe that Amaechi anger grew after President Muhammadu Buhari dumped him and picked Professor Yemi Osinbajo as his vice president.

In order not to lose out totally, the senator said the ex-governor resolved to impose his successor so that the state will perpetually be under his control.

Abe also alleged the desperation on the part of minister to control the state, is at the center of the bloody crisis that has left many persons dead in the last few years.

Abe made the revelations on the heels of last week’s threat by Amaechi , during the All Progressives Congress, APC presidential rally where the minister stated that the election will be bloody.

“No election will hold in the state but war,” Amaechi vowed at the campaign attended by President Muhammadu Buhari and other APC stalwarts in Port Harcourt.

If Amaechi want war, I will give him war, Senator Abe seems to be saying, as he has now broken the Pandora box on what strained their relationships.

While responding to a recent statement by Amaechi that Senator Abe and Governor Nyesom Wike were responsible for the bloody violence in the state, the senator disclosed that the inordinate ambition of the minister is responsible for the crisis.

Both Governor Wike and Abe served as chief of staff to Amaechi while he was governor of the state.

The three gladiators also served under Governor Odili administration.

But the relationship was strained when the minister decided to install Dakuku Peterside as governor in 2015.

Abe said he decided to break the ice after a long silence on his part. “It has become imperative that I set the records straight on the issue raised by the minister so that Nigerians will know the truth,” the senator said in a statement.

According to him the minister first became angry when he was denied the Vice Presidential ticket by his party, APC in 2015.

A northern state governor has recently, in an interview confirmed that the minister wanted to be President Buhari’s running mate. Amaechi later served as Director General of APC presidential campaign.

Abe has also alleged that the minister sent thugs to invade the premises of the state High Court last year when the court was about to give judgment in a case to decide which of the two factions of APC led by Amaechi and Abe, is authentic.

He said the judiciary was angry with Amaechi from desecrating the temple of justice with his thugs.

The crisis deepened after APC was barred by the court from fielding candidates for all elective positions in this year’s general election.

You are responsible for APC misfortunes, Abe told Amaechi.

He said “firstly, the minister said the justice of the case today demands that the riverine part of the state should produce the next governor.

Let me again place it on record that it was the same Amaechi who called the entire leadership of the Ogoni nations to several meetings to promise them same governorship for the same reason.”

Abe said the minister later changed his mind when he picked Peterside, now Director General of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA as APC candidate.

The minister had claimed that Abe became ill on learning that Peterside’s had been picked.

To the contrary, Abe said.

“I did not fall ill. He will recollect that Rivers’ youths almost set the government house on fire , and that I came out to address them and went on air to appeal for calm,” after the selection of Peterside as APC candidate, Abe said.

Amaechi “can also remember that I arranged a meeting of Ogoni leaders who met with him in the aftermath of that decision. No doctor attended to me,” the senator said.

He further explained that the ex-governor was devastated after he learned that he was not picked as Buhari’s running mate.

According to him, Amaechi was placed on drip by his doctors all night in order to stabilize him from the shock.

The minister had last week accused Governor Wike and Abe of working in cahoots to frustrate his party’s effort to field candidates for elective positions in the state.

“Why is wike usingMagnus Abe to avoid elections? It’s not over until it’s over. We are going all on Saturday to vote Buhari. If INEC decides to obey the stay of execution, we are ready to vote on Saturday,” Amaechi vowed.