By Abdulaziz Abdulaziz
Abuja
By Vivian Okejeme
Abuja
Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, has denied allegations of corruption against him, saying as governor of Rivers state for eight years, he was transparent and did not embezzle money meant for the people.
Speaking yesterday at a stakeholders’ forum on corruption organised by the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja, he denied receiving N3.1 trillion as alleged by his successor, Governor Nyesom Wike.
Amaechi said Rivers state became the first to implement the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) Act during his tenure as governor of the state, stating: “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 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 N10 million.
“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.
Amaechi said transparency in the use of public funds was key to his administration as governor, and that the Rivers community was fully briefed, periodically, on how funds were being utilised.
“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. I did not receive up to N1.8 trillion 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,” he said.
