Attact Me With a Shameful Name If I Stole Rivers Money - Amaechi
Amaechi
Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, has said that he has never embezzled
funds meant for the development of Rivers state when he was governor.
Revealing this at a stakeholders’ forum on corruption organised by the Federal
Ministry of Justice in Abuja on Thursday, Amaechi said, “If you had
followed the Rivers State government when I was governor, we were the
first state to introduce the Public Procurement Law in the country.
The
state cabinet used to call the Director General of Public Procurement in
the state as an alternative governor, that they wanted an amendment to
that law. The reason they wanted amendment is that he (DG) refused to
increase the threshold to one hundred million naira, per ministry,
instead he reduced it to 10 million naira.
I had a battle with him (DG
BPE) and the world bank who insisted that we should not go for an
amendment but should persuade him to increase the threshold. I remember
the cabinet tried to go to court against him and I remember that he was
also trying to go to court against Commissioners.
''In fact, the procurement DG wrote a memo that I felt was very incriminating requesting that since the law requires the governor to take any commissioner who doesn’t comply with the public procurement law to court, I should please take the commissioner of education to court for not complying… Everybody in the cabinet felt that he was an alternative governor, they felt that he was slowing the process,” he said.
“Within that period we insisted on engaging the indigenous communities on how much we received and how we spent the money. That is why I feel that after this ministerial appointment, I should do everything possible to stay away from government because in spite of all the forms of transparency I introduced in government, one man could begin to tell lies to Nigerians and Nigerians believe him.
''In fact, the procurement DG wrote a memo that I felt was very incriminating requesting that since the law requires the governor to take any commissioner who doesn’t comply with the public procurement law to court, I should please take the commissioner of education to court for not complying… Everybody in the cabinet felt that he was an alternative governor, they felt that he was slowing the process,” he said.
“Within that period we insisted on engaging the indigenous communities on how much we received and how we spent the money. That is why I feel that after this ministerial appointment, I should do everything possible to stay away from government because in spite of all the forms of transparency I introduced in government, one man could begin to tell lies to Nigerians and Nigerians believe him.
The governor of Rivers
State said I squandered N3 trillion naira. I did not receive up to N1.8
trillion naira as governor both from IGR and funds from federal
allocation. So, how could I have squandered money I did not even receive
in the first place? You can see the politics of lies and lies.
''As Minister of Transportation, I run an open and transparent system. I believe in name and shame. What name and shame does is, if you name and shame those of them who don’t have conscience they won’t come to public functions. I do have conscience.
''As Minister of Transportation, I run an open and transparent system. I believe in name and shame. What name and shame does is, if you name and shame those of them who don’t have conscience they won’t come to public functions. I do have conscience.
I decided to attend this occasion because of the word corruption. I wanted to see who will get up
and say to me, ‘this is evidence that you are corrupt. We went to court
against the Rivers State government on their allegation of corruption
against me. The Court of Appeal said, produce that document that found
this man (Amaechi) guilty of those crimes and up till today he (Wike)
has no evidence to produce,” he said.
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