Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi has said that he was betrayed in grand style by his former loyalist, Education Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Wike, who coincidentally was Amaechi’s former Chief of Staff failed an integrity test, according to Amaechi.
Speaking to a group of traditional rulers who visited him at Government House, Port Harcourt, Amaechi said, “I told my friends who are governors, I said when you will be betrayed at the end of 2015, you will almost be in a state of coma, because you have not experienced it. Your speech did mention the former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives (Austin Opara), your speech also mentioned the Minister of State for Education (Nyesom Wike). The Minister of State for Education swore with the names of his children that he would never betray me, that I should put his name forward for Minister.
“No matter the condition, I will never swear with the names of my children, nothing will make me swear with the names of my children. But if I make the mistake of swearing with the names of my children, nothing outside God will make me betray you. Not because any harm will befall the children. It is the honour you bestow on those children that should make you not to betray whatever word you have given to anybody.
“In fact, if you listen very well, the Minister of State for Education was saying that I wasn’t the person who nominated him until a Rivers delegation went to see the President and the president said, ‘I don’t even know the man (Wike). It was Amaechi that brought him. I stopped him but Amaechi insisted that I must take him (Wike).’ “There are not too many elite with character, not too many. In their quest for power and their desire to accumulate wealth, they can sell their mother, some elite can sell their mothers.”