A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has said that the appointment of former Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike, as Minister of the FCT was devoid of good reasoning and basically fraught with the intendment to wage a personal vendetta against perceived political adversaries through revocation of property rights within the nation’s capital.
Forwfrontng.com reports that Chief Eze said if President Tinubu had critically considered the antecedents of his appointees who previously held public office as part of the criteria for qualification to serve in his government, he would have had Wike’s name struck out of the list given that his term as Rivers Governor is historic on the negative note and would continue to be of unblessed memory.
Eze, in a statement on Monday, said he was persuaded to agree with widespread belief in Nigeria that another reason for the undeserving appointment of Wike may have arisen from the contemplation within the presidency, of a possible rerun election, by which event the former Rivers Governor, often accused of election rigging, would deploy his rigging skill to compromise the process and probably steal the election to help President Tinubu meet the statutory 25% requirement in the FCT, which is considered to be one of the basis for a possible nullification of the election.
He said that aside from the points afore-canvassed, Wike’s appointment would help him further explore his vengeful avaricious land-grabbing skill in Nigeria’s capital city as he did during his tenure as Governor where he used the powers of his office and the public fund within his disposal to force land owners to surrender their properties which became part of his private estates; and as a result, holds the title of the biggest landlord in the whole Rivers state having acquired almost 1/10 of the state’s landmass.
According to Eze; “He is on record to have pushed out civil servants from 11 streets in the GRA in Port Harcourt and compensated them with government funds and took over all of the plots with his cronies.
“How do we explain to Nigerians that as Governor, the new FCT Minister wickedly withheld and in fact, pocketed pensioners gratuities for eight years and subjected them to a life of anguish and penury where they perpetually wallow in poverty and deep want.
“Reminiscing on the days of the FCT Minister as Rivers Governor evokes memories of waste, disappointment, official lies, deceit, looting, media fanfare, regrets and so much ado about nothing.
“Health, education and infrastructures in other critical sectors remained in shambles under the Wike regime even though billions were allocated to them annually on the state budgets, which remained shrouded in secrecy despite the loud hue and cry,” he said.