Joshua Omoloye, Abuja
A group under the aegis of Concerned Rivers People, CRP, has condemned former Rivers State Commissioner, Peterside Dakuku over what it described as his unsavoury comments on Governor Nyesom Wike’s projects describing him as a gold digger, trying to reap from where he never sowed a seed.
The group in a statement issued and signed by its director, Peter Robinson advised Dakuku to always check and verify facts before embarking on a voyage of self delusion as exemplified in his recent sponsored Interview.
The CRP, asserted in the statement that: “Once again, Dakuku Peterside, the failed gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, has chosen to dance naked in the market place. In an interview he granted to THISDAY, Dakuku exhibited his usual bitterness over his loss and the triumph of Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, who got the mandate of the people of Rivers State.
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“Since that shameful defeat about seven years ago, Dakuku has never recovered from the shock and had always looked for every opportunity to vent his anger. Particularly, after he lost his bid for reappointment into NIMASA. Every time he speaks, he displays a hatred, bitterness, morbid fear and jealousy for the soaring political profile of Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike not just in Rovers State but across the country”.
The group claimed that Dakuku is out to provoke a mob action against Wike but he’s proceeding in grave error and turning the issues upside down.
“He claims the current administration is seizing public properties and dashing same to friends and cronies. What he has not told the world is who are the owners of the properties allegedly seized and what the owners have done. How he and others came about several government properties in GRA Port Harcourt which the present government is gradually recovering from them, which is his real grouse.
“The truth is that Dakuku and some of his allies perhaps have illegally acquired some of these government properties which have been recovered by Wike and that’s his bitterness. It’s sheer hypocrisy.
“Since he started the lamentation over illegal acquisition, how many property owners have come forward with a petition to the committee set up by the Wike administration to consider such complaints. The courts are open for him if he has a right to the properties he got in GRA Port Harcourt that are recovered by the government.
“All of a sudden, he has created an imaginary “unknown investor” who is buying up every parcel of land and property in Rivers State. The procedure for land acquisition/ allocation is known to him, save that the present government has placed the caveat that such lands must me used for the allocated purpose and developed within six months.
“We shall investigate the ones he has specifically mentioned and reveal the identity of the said investors to show that he is crying wolf”, the statement read.
The Concerned Rivers People commended the Wike administration for its giant stride in infrastructure development and for turning every part of the three senatorial districts in River State into construction sites.
Reeling out Wike’s achievements, the group said “everyone acknowledges the giant strides Rivers State has recorded in the infrastructural development in the last seven years. Many prominent Nigerians, including governors from other states across political divide have visited Rivers State and seen the spectacular projects of the Wike administration, but Dakuku has chosen to turn a blind eye to these visible evidence of good governance.
“Instead, he wants the world to believe that Wike has done nothing good in the lives of the people. He claims that Wike is building flyovers and neglecting the education and health sectors. What a laughable rhetoric and display of ignorance. The last administration sank $39.9 Million on Karibi Whyte Specialist Hospital, not a block was laid. Wike is presently constructing Dr. Peter Odili Cancer and Cardiovascular Diagnostic and Treatment Centre commenced by this government is presently at an advanced stage of completion.
“The abandoned Zonal Hospitals at Bori, Okirika, Ahoada, Degema and Etche have all been revamped and are back to life as well as a Primary Healthcare Board at Waterlines.
“The Braithwaite Memorial Hospital has been upgraded to a Teaching Hospital to serve as training ground for the newly established College of Health Sciences at the State University.
“A Mother and Child 132- Bed Hospital at Rumuomasi has 50 Delivery Rooms, 6 Modular Operating Theatres, Invitro Fertilization Equipment, Fluoroscopic Equipment and Mamography Equipment”.
“The truth is that the Wike administration has touched every critical sector in the socio-economic sphere of Rivers State. Actually, we do not expect any commendation from Dakuku and his party because they know that with the excellent performance of the Wike administration, APC will have no foothold in Rivers State in 2023”.
