Jonathan should ensure I’m not killed — Amaechi

The Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on Saturday raised the alarm over his safety and pleaded with President Goodluck Jonathan, to ensure that he is not killed.

Amaechi said this in an interview with Sahara TV, which was monitored by one of our correspondents.

The governor, who narrated his ordeal in hands of the police and aviation authorities since he fell out with the President, said he felt unsafe.


“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 They’ve withdrawn so many policemen. They’ve withdrawn all policemen from the commissioners.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.”

Amaechi also accused his political opponents, including the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, and the President’s wife, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, of using the police to intimidate him and the people of the state.

He said, “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.”

Amaechi also accused the National Aviation Management Authority of monitoring his movement and deliberately delaying his flights.

He described the level of impunity under Jonathan as worse than what Nigeria experienced under late General Sani Abacha.

Amaechi said the Nigeria Governor’s Forum crisis would be resolved at the end of the 2015 election, adding that there would have been peace in Nigeria had the President not interfered in the forum’s election.

He told his interviewer that President Jonathan confirmed his involvement in the NGF election at the last meeting the rebel governors had with him.

“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 said the possibility of peace between him and the first family was left in the hands of the President and God.

“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.

In a swift response, the Presidency described Amaechi as a drowning man, whose intention was to pitch the President and Nigerians.

Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, told SUNDAY PUNCH that Amaechi, by his utterances, did not have respect for the office of the President and by extension, the sovereignty of Nigeria.

Gulak said, “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 (the governor).

“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.”