Governor Nyesom Wike has alleged that former Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr Dakuku Peterside was once apprehended in Rivers State University for cult related activities.
He added that as a ‘cultist’ the NIMASA DG cannot tell him what is good.
The Rivers State Governor spoke during the inauguration of reconstructed Rumuigbo, Chief Johnson Amadi, Igbodo, Finima, Rumuopareli, Bauchi, Ohia and Isaac Boro streets in Old Government Residential Area, Port Harcourt on Tuesday evening.
Dakuku had in a recent article faulted the much acclaimed performance of Wike as governor of Rivers State.
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The former NIMASA DG had said in the article that Rivers under Wike has become the state with the highest number of unemployed persons and the most insecure state in the country.
Dakuku cited the current curfew in place in Rivers to back his claim.
Reacting to the criticism, Wike claimed his administration has since 2015 made conscientious effort to transform the landscape of Rivers State and restore the Garden City status of Port Harcourt, contrary to ‘misleading lies’ being peddled by the likes of Peterside.
He also alleged that Peterside, who, according to him, was once stripped naked in Rivers State University for cult related activities, and whose company misappropriated funds meant for the shore protection project in Kalaibiama community in Opobo LGA, lacks the moral rectitude to criticise his administration.
The Governor said it rather unfortunate that those who laid the foundation for cultism in Nigerian universities have gradually found their way into the country’s political sphere.
“Who are those who laid the foundation of cultism in Nigeria? It is those who went to University. Dakuku Peterside was a cultist in Rivers state University. Dakuku Peterside was stripped naked in Rivers State University. I have never been a cultist from University of Port Harcourt to Rivers State University and to Law School. How can a cultist tell me what is good.”
Governor Wike also claimed that it was because of the cluelessness and lack of focus of the immediate past administration in the State, in which Peterside served as Commissioner for Works, that projects like Abonnema Ring Round awarded by Governor Peter Odili, Rumuolumeni-Rumuepirikon road, Woji road among others were abandoned.
But he said he has since completed these projects in the interest of the State.
Wike described the former NIMASA DG as a political neophyte because PDP has won all the elections in his Opobo Local Government Area since 2015.
He maintained that curfew imposed in the State in the wake attacks on security formation will only be relaxed when he receives security brief from the State Security Council.
“I will not lift the curfew until the security people tell me it is time to call off the curfew. Only criminals complain against the curfew. I prefer to protect life and property.”