The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi
\nAmaechi has refuted claims by his successor Nyesom Wike that he left an
\nempty treasury. Governor Wike had consistently maintained that he met a
\ncompletely empty treasury when he took over as governor.<\/p>\n
Only on Wednesday, while trying to justify why he took a total of
\nN30billion bank loans from Zenith and Access banks under 30 days in
\noffice, Wike had through his spokesman, Opunabo Inko-Tariah told Today
\n95.1FM, a radio station in Port Harcourt that he met an empty treasury
\nwhen he took over government. However, Amaechi has openly put a lie to
\nWike\u2019s claim, saying he left billions of naira in cash and economic
\nassets for Rivers State.<\/p>\n
In a statement released by the former Governor\u2019s Media Office Thursday,
\nAmaechi revealed that a total of N7.5billion cash were left behind as
\nbalances in the State Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) account with Skye
\nBank, FAAC account with Zenith Bank, balances with Access Bank and funds
\nin the State reserve fund account in First Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is besides other balances in the state Government House account with
\nZenith Bank and other government MDA accounts, like the Bureau for Public
\nProcurement (BPP).\u00a0 By the time you pull all these together, we are
\nlooking at readily available cash in the region of eight to ten billion
\nnaira left for the Wike administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also pertinent to point out here that former governor Amaechi also
\nleft economic assets worth tens of billions of naira for the State. Just
\nlike cash, the assets store value. These assets that are scattered in
\ndiverse sectors of the economy were developed or built or procured with
\nrevenue that accrued to the state during Amaechi\u2019s tenure. The assets
\nbelong to Rivers State, not Amaechi.\u00a0 Some of these assets are presently
\nyielding revenue to the state coffers, and many can be easily and readily
\nconverted to cash, if the State so desires.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is therefore disingenuous and fraudulent for Wike to claim that
\nAmaechi left an empty treasury in his bid to justify the N30billion loans
\nhe collected under 30 days in office. Rather than this puerile and silly
\ndistraction of always pointing accusing fingers at Amaechi, Wike\u00a0 should
\ncome out to explain to Rivers people what he took the loans for, account
\nfor and justify every kobo that has been spent from the loans\u201d, the
\nstatement concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has refuted claims by his successor Nyesom Wike that he left an empty treasury. Governor Wike had consistently…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n