The Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi has described the level of impunity under the President Goodluck Jonathan as worse than the scenario engendered in the country by the late tyrant, General Sani Abacha when he accused the president of plotting to kill him.
Amaechi cried out on Saturday during an interview with internet television, Sahara TV.
The factional chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), noted that he does not feel safe anymore in the country as the president alongside his cohorts in River State has orchestrated the withdrawal of virtually all his aides as part of the presidency’s effort to rip him bare of security details.
But in a prompt reaction, Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak described Ameachi’s utterances as a show of disrespect for the office of the President and the sovereignty of the country.
Amaechi noted that this has been the backdrop of the humiliations he experienced from the stable of the Nigerian Police force and the aviation authorities.
“I don’t have an aide de camp. I don’t have a chief security officer. They’ve withdrawn so many policemen. They’ve withdrawn all policemen from the commissioners. I feel unsafe. I just know that they want to kill me. Beg Mr. President to ensure that I’m not killed because I’m sure they are planning towards that”, he declared.
Amaechi noted that his political antagonists spearheaded by the president, including the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, and the President’s wife, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, are intimidating him and the people of the state with the police.
“It is not just Wike that is controlling (the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph) Mbu. It is not just Mrs. Patience Jonathan that is controlling Mbu. There are some people on the street controlling him.
“They are doing two things under the watch of Mr. President and the Inspector-General of Police. They are trying to intimidate the Rivers society so that they can rig elections. And they are trying to intimidate me and expose me to danger.”
On the NGF crisis, Amaechi pointed out that the interference of the president contributed to the current crises ahead of the 2015 elections. He also noted that if the president had stayed out of the matter, there would have been peace in Nigeria.
He disclosed that President Jonathan acknowledged that his interference in the NGF election during the reconciliation meetings held recently “while Akpabio was denying it”.
“I reminded him that the President confirmed to me that he participated. Jonathan said he canvassed support for Governor Shema and that he called governors and showed them a video recording of my speech on the oil well that was taken from Soku to Balyesa, and he therefore told them that if I won, he would never work with me,” he said.
He however said he was willing to broker peace “If the President wants peace”.
“I will be available. And it should not be the type of peace that we had in 2011, that was because of the election,” he said.
Gulak who described Amaechi as a drowning man stated: “On his claim that the President is after his life, Amaechi himself knows that President Jonathan is a peace-loving man who cannot hurt a fly.
“On the contrary, maybe he is the one planning that against the President. He should stop pitching people against the President. Nigerians know the President that he is a gentleman.
“Amaechi is a drowning man whose plan is just to pitch the President against the people of Rivers State but people of the state know better and they have turned against him” Gulak maintained.