What happened at the Port Harcourt Airport on Saturday, June 29, when President Goodluck Jonathan was returning to Abuja after his visit to Bayelsa State?
The President came on Friday. That was 28th June, 2013. We were at the airport to receive him. The governor was in Lagos with his APC (All Peoples Congress) friends. They were at Fashola’s (Lagos State governor) birthday. He did not come to receive the President. The deputy governor came. When the deputy governor came, he saw the crowd that came to receive the President. He must have reported to the governor and said, “You can’t allow this.” So on 29th June, Saturday, the governor came. He saw us. The first thing he did was to call the chief detail to Mr. President. He said if these people did not come out of this place, he would not come and receive Mr. President. Who were the people he was talking about? He did not want to see the state party (the Peoples Democratic Party) officials. Mr. President alighted from a helicopter. We all went to receive him.
He (the governor) did not bring any crowd. He wanted to receive Mr. President with four commissioners. That was the humiliation; he wanted the President to suffer. I am a minister and what should I have done, go home? The President is passing an area and you want to bring four commissioners to receive him. Some of them were wearing jeans. He did not want Mr President to shake hands with people on the line. I said, “No, these people are party officials.” Mr. President said they were all Rivers people and shook hands with them.
The governor got angry and left the airport. He left before Mr. President left. He went to the Church where Okocha (former President of the Nigerian Bar Association) was marking his 60th birthday. That was where the governor got angry and started saying we betrayed him. You have read the book of Odili “My story,” Why is everybody betraying Amaechi? I betrayed him. Austin Opara betrayed him.
The governor threatened that he would leave the PDP. How will you react to that?
I don’t do fasting, but I have started fasting that he should leave the PDP. Let all of us meet in the field. Let us convince Rivers people, since he wants to be Tinubu of Rivers State. Let him leave the PDP. He is getting too late. Let him leave now. Let us meet during elections. What has also angered Amaechi is because he has no party. He does not have a party structure.
Last year, a former National Organising Secretary of the PDP, Uche Secondus, who is from the state, tried but failed to emerge as the Deputy National Chairman. What happened?
The problem of Uche Secondus started when he wanted to become the deputy national chairman. When Nwodo was the national chairman of the party, there was a move to harmonise our party list, Uche Secondus was the national organising secretary. He stood by us. Amaechi came out against Uche Secondus; that if he became the Deputy National Chairman, he would make his brother governor in 2015. Do you know as a minister, the governor never said, “Gentleman, we cannot support Uche Secondus.” He brought a referee. I do not want to talk about activities of the governor; his so-called transparency. It is a subject matter for another day. Nigerians will know how transparent all of us are.
What was your relationship before now?
There was no relationship between us prior to 1999. I did not know him, neither did he know me. We all came together to find ourselves in the same political arena, the Peoples Democratic Party. We were in the same team of Peter Odili even though they were at the higher level, so to speak. We were also at the level we should be making our contributions. The relationship was cordial till 2007. In 2006, when we had the PDP governorship primaries, people were projecting their aspirants to be the flag-bearers. I was the rallying point of those supporting Amaechi to the point that the logistics we shared at the eve of the primaries were done in my house. During the primaries, I was the agent of Amaechi. If you look at the result sheet, I was the one that signed it. After that, some problems came up along the line when the party was to give flags to all the South-South flag-bearers in Port Harcourt, in December 2006. That was when Obasanjo said there was “K-leg” with Amaechi’s candidacy. In fact, that particular day, we were to disrupt the giving of flags to other states’ flag-bearers, but Amaechi prevailed on us to allow the process.
I can tell you that most of the people close to Amaechi today were those who ran away from us. It is not something you go and ask a prophet or a native doctor or a soothsayer that who, at that time, was in charge of making sure Amaechi regains his mandate? Our tenure as local government chairmen had not expired when Celetine Omehia (Amaechi’s predecessor) dissolved the councils because we were seen as Amaechi’s men. There was nothing that was not done to make me withdraw my support for Amaechi. I had everything with me to terminate Amaechi’s ambition. There was no offer that was not made to me, but I said no. I said I had taken a decision so shall it be. If we fail, we fail together. If we win, we win together.
Those who are wining and dining with Amaechi today were those who vowed that there was no way he (Amaechi) would become the governor of Rivers State. I know those who were going to Omeha’s house in the night to beg him to make them ambassadors. They only came to support Amaechi when they heard legal arguments that went on in court few days to the judgment that he (Amaechi) was likely to win.
The governor said you were a betrayer. Do you see yourself as such?
Today he is seeing me as a betrayer. For those who read English language, betrayer will mean, by my own understanding, we had an agreement to do something and you sold out. I ask myself, what agreement did we enter into either written or oral that I never fulfilled my own part or sold out for him to say I have betrayed him? I can tell you that the day I was coming to Abuja, I nearly lost my life along Uromi Road. I was in a bus when armed robbers blocked the road.
On December 3, 2007, I was attacked at Garrison Junction, Port Harcourt. My driver was shattered. They blew up the fuel tank thinking that the vehicle would catch fire. I never knew how I came out unhurt. The (Army) brigade commander, the Air Force commander and the State Security Service director visited the scene. When they saw the vehicle, they said it was a professional job. The governor never asked the security men what was going on.
Can you explain what happened when you were invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for fraud in 2008?
In 2008, unknown to me, I was invited by the EFCC. I went there on my own. What did I hear? I heard that N4bn was transferred from the Government House account to my personal account. As of that time, what I had in my account was N624,000. That account was opened in 2002. What passed through the account from 2002 to 2008 was about N100m. That was for about six years. Nobody gave a statement that I was not a signatory to the Government House account. You have the Permanent Secretary as well as the Director of Finance and Administration. If I was to transfer money from the Government House account, the permanent secretary would have been involved. It was surprising that the government of Rivers State never supported me in that matter. Go and ask Lateef Fagbemi and the present Attorney General of the Federation, (Mr. Mohammed Adoke); they were in my legal team. The governor never supported me for one day in that matter, but God led me through. I got to the Supreme Court and I won. That was not betrayal. Today, I am a small boy. When I was laying down my life, I was not a small boy.
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