Says: I Will Not Dump PDP
The Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi has denied rumour making the rounds that he is dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for another party.
He said it will be foolhardy for one to dump a national party for an obscure one.
Amaechi was in the State House for a presidential committee meeting to intervene in the raging feud between Rivers and Bayelsa States over oil fields located in Soku, but was later called off .
On his reported plan to leave PDP, Amaechi said, “I am still in the PDP. I am a member of the PDP. PDP is the only national party in the country for now. Why will one want to leave a national party and go to another party?”
On allegation of procurement of aircraft for 2015 campaign, he said it was untrue and those behind the report were only being mischievous, saying the aircrafts bought by the State Government were for security surveillance which was approved by the Federal Government.
Amaechi said, “Why do you want to make that newspaper popular? It is a paper that does not sell beyond Abuja.
The truth is that, and the Federal Government is aware, they give us approval to buy an helicopter to fly around Rivers State for the purpose of security and we have done that, we bought and we paid.
“Up till now, they have not allowed the helicopter to come in. Maybe they are afraid that it is for 2015. Please help us beg them on behalf of Rivers State that we need the aircraft to be able to secure the people of the state.
“Again, it is not within our control, it is in the control of the Nigerian Airforce. Although we will hire a civilian pilot but Nigerian security will manage it, not us.
“How will you use what is in the hands of Nigerian security to campaign?
You see the mischief? The helicopter is to ensure that Rivers State is under watch for 24 hours. It has cameras, so if somebody is committing a crime, we are seeing it. The monitors are in the office of the Brigade Commander, office of the state director of SSS, office of the governor, office of the commissioner of police. So for Christ sake, tell me how you will use it for campaign.
“You can see a lot of mischief. As usual, people will try to dent your image to show that this man is not as transparent as he claims after all.
We have argued about the first aircraft we bought, that is no longer a story. We did not buy two jets”.
A national daily, had alleged that Amaechi had in the last four months acquired four aircrafts, (two armoured helicopters and two private jets) ostensibly for political campaign in the 2015 presidential elections.
The paper quoting experts said one armoured helicopter sells for about $18 million while the Gulf Stream costs $10 million. It said the the sum total of $56 million (N9 billion) used for the procurement of the aircrafts was not budgeted for.