Rivers: Amaechi slams opposition

Posted by admin Rivers, State News, Tochukwu Ezukanma Friday, March 11th, 2011

Rivers State governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has slammed his opponents in the April 2011 governorship race in the state on the use of character assassination rather than issues of what they intend doing for the State and how they want to go about it.

He insisted that they shut their mouths, if they have nothing to offer Rivers people.
Speaking during his campaign rally in Eleme Local Government Area of the State, yesterday, noted that the same people who wrought insecurity upon the state previously, facilitating the killing of many persons cannot come back to rule the people.

“They should address issues and not character assassination. They should tell us what they have done when they were in government and I will tell them what I did when I was a speaker. And they should tell us what they would do now.

“One of the things I did for Rivers State, including his home town and Eleme, is to ensure there is security. My opponents are living in Abuja; their wives are in Abuja; see my wife here; my wife is going with me to campaign. When they were doing primaries, they will do primary here and run to Abuja .

If Abuja is safe, what made Port Harcourt not to be safe? They are the same people that made Port Harcourt not to be safe.
“Today, they are here campaigning, after I have suffered, after I have put you under pressure and chased the criminals away, criminals that were brought by them. Today they are campaigning freely; they are going from one senatorial district to another, so they can gather seven local government areas, but I am going LGA by LGA.”

On his background and the constant claims by his opponents that he is arrogant, Amaechi said: “We have never claimed glory to wealth; we have always claimed to be from a poor and humble background. My father taught me honesty; my father made sure that I knew that I should not lie and that, I have grown with. If you call that arrogance, I have no apologies. I must stand by the truth and I will tell the truth. If the others call it arrogance, that is their problem. I prefer to have a governor who is arrogant, than have a governor who will kill people.

“Part of the oath of the governor is to protect life and property. I will not serve as a governor that will kill human beings. If I grew up as a poor man, today I’m the governor of both the rich and the poor. It means that if we build public schools properly, the poor man can also be a governor.
“I challenge them to godliness; let them show us that they are God-fearing. The first responsibility that makes a leader is that he must fear his God. If you fear God, you will not kill. When they have finished killing and they were leaving public office, they were scared of their lives and they went to live in Abuja. I have no house in Abuja; they should tell us how they got houses in Abuja.”

Amaechi had also, in his campaign rallies at Akinima and Ahoada, headquarters of Ahoada West and Ahoada East local government areas, advised the people not to vote for candidates who would compromise the peace and security in the state for their selfish interests.

-Sunwp_posts