AMAECHI, RIVERS IS NOT EDO. YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT AGAINBy Oraye St. Franklyn

The embattled Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, in a desperate effort to redeem his blighted ego and waned national standing in the APC, which were severely crushed by the overwhelming rejection he suffered at both the General and Rerun elections in Rivers State, as the leader of the APC in Rivers State, has again missed the point in declaring that the rejected Party will win the remaining rescheduled elections in the State that were deliberately postponed in a bid to undermine the stake of Rivers people both at the National Assembly and within the Nigerian federation.

Amaechi’s confidence springs from the recent controversial victory of the APC in Edo State as he said at a recent poorly attended rally in Rivers State. But he misses the point, yet again, as he did when for his personal political survival and vain glory he misled innocent sons and daughters of the State to support a Political party that has turned out to be the worst in the history of democracy in Nigeria.

The points Amaechi should note are that first, he has suffered an established defeat in Rivers State. At the last March 19 court ordered rerun elections in Rivers State in which Amaechi by himself led the hordes of hell and the charge against Rivers people, his political fortune was brutally crushed and his incapacity was effectively exposed to the whole world to see.

What didn't Amaechi not do at that Election? The military was summoned and went beyond themselves to undermine the will of Rivers people. Supporters of the PDP were attacked and killed in the guise of mopping up arms that no one has to this day seen. Even the State was strategically demarketed by Amaechi himself as a hotbed of crises irrespective of the fact that Amaechi and his party were the instigators of the various crises that characterised what they condemned. Fortunately, every effort failed, including the plot to rig the elections in favour of the APC.

How can Rivers people forget in a hurry that the braggadocious Amaechi who flew into the State like an Emperor coming for a kill in the full glare of the media, had to escape the embarrassing defeat he suffered, in the dead of the night unannounced, dejected, rejected and humiliated? But the point to be made here is that as Minister, albeit, a 'super' Minister with the ears of the President, who rather than attract development to the State, champions the extermination of his own people, Amaechi was defeated and remains so, without any homebase support; and the remainder elections, infinitesimal as they are, won't change the fact of his defeat and rejection. He and his Party, the APC, would be defeated again.

Amaechi also needs to be reminded that the same will of Rivers people that rejected APC at a time when it had not sufficiently proved itself to be a national error as it currently is, has not abated any bit. It is the same will that will resist all efforts to undermine democracy in Rivers State regardless of whether the entire armed forces of the federation are deployed to the State. And the reasons are not far-fetched. No political party in the history of Nigeria's democracy has displayed a lack of tolerance for diversity as the APC does. No party has been motivated by the dire drag for fundamentalism as the APC does. No Party in Nigeria's history has established a government without an iota of the understanding of the workings of government as the APC is doing. And if the people of Edo, could find no basis to prevent a hijack of their will, the people of Rivers, time after each, have consistently showed no stomach for the maddening malfeasance.

Amaechi’s recent boast is not being treated with levity, he must be informed, as his aversion for political tolerance and democratic tenets are well established facts concomitant with the values of his Political Party, the APC. While the People of Rivers State who have consistently rejected him and his Party are unrattled by his open boast of the deployment of military might to undermine their will, they will stand ready in the full glare of the whole world to ensure that Amaechi and his sponsors in Abuja are guided to answer for charges on genocide and ethnic cleansing at the Hague. We are determined to put a stop to the political killings being sponsored by the APC in Rivers State with the cooperation of Federal institutions.

It is a matter of public knowledge that Rivers State is deliberately being prodded to be unsafe for anything worthwhile. While the Governor Wike-led administration has consistently made mileage in delivering the needed dividends of good governance to Rivers people irrespective of the distractions and the debilitating effects of the mismanagement of both the economy and governmental powers by the APC led Federal Government, it has not gone unnoticed that Amaechi has personally stood in the way of peace in Rivers State by constantly inciting tensions with his immature and unsalted political rhetoric, especially in the lead up to elections in the State. The same game is playing out again. But this time around, Amaechi would be helped to sort out his misery. Watch out.