Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, The Rivers State
Governor, on Tuesday rebuffed suggestions that he should step down as the
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum,
NGF, following the emergence of a faction of the Forum headed by his Plateau
State counterpart, Jonah Jang.
He
said he will stick to the mandate freely given to him by his colleagues in the
election two weeks ago in which he polled 19 votes to Mr. Jang’s 16.
Mr.
Amaechi told journalists in Abuja after inspecting the NGF secretariat
belonging to his faction that it was wrong to ask him to relinquish the office
of the chairman he was elected into and reminded Mr. Jang and his self
acclaimed deputy, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, that God hates liars and
heaven is real.
“Mimiko
and I are Christians and I think he’s a good Christian and one of the sins
against God is the sin of lying, I am not saying he is lying but I am saying
Mimiko voted,” the Rivers State Governor said while reacting to Mr. Mimiko’s
statement in the media that he (Mimiko) did not vote during the controversial
election.
“I
think they suspected that they will (not) win and Mimiko was one of those who
refused to vote, but when they whisper among themselves and they thought they
will win, they all casted their votes. Those governors who were pro-Amaechi
voted first and those against him voted last. Tell Mimiko that I said he voted.
Mimiko voted, everybody there voted.”
Also
speaking about Mr. Jang, Mr. Amaechi, who was in company of the Ekiti State
Governor, Kayode Fayemi, said, “I want to urge Jang because he said he is
Christian, to know that God watches over everybody and whatever you say, say it
according to God because beyond NGF you and I know that there is heaven and you
can’t go to heaven if you don’t tell the truth and stand by the truth.”
The
Rivers State Governor, while responding to the video clip of the election,
which leaked to the media last week, explained that when he was informed that
one of the governors was recording it, he did all he could to protect the
interest of all the governors by calling the governor to order.
He
said he has now realized that the governor was doing the right thing as the
video has turned out to be a historical evidence about the election.
He
said, “I was protecting my colleagues who did not want it recorded and the
governor who was recording said he will not stop and thank God he did not stop.
If he had listened to me and stopped, maybe it will be more controversial than
it is now.”
He
urged his colleagues to focus more on those issues that unite all the governors
and Nigerians such as the fight against poverty and polio rather than engaging
in divisive issues, stressing, “Those are the things that are killing the
poor.”
He
regretted that the governors are busy fighting in Abuja and in their state
capitals over the NGF election while Nigerians are dying of poverty and hunger.
He
dismissed the unveiling of another secretariat of the Forum by the Jang
faction, saying that there cannot be two secretariats because the governors
must come together to work and resolve their difference.
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