Rivers State governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has refuted claims by his predecessor, Sir Celestine Omehia that he left N28 billion in the state coffers
Amaechi made the rebuttal during the signing of two bills recently passed by the State House of Assembly, in Government House, Port Harcourt.
He declared that Omehia left N18 billion in the project account and N100 million in the Rivers state government account.
According to him, the clarification became necessary so as to put records straight and avoid deceiving members of the public.
He revealed that on the eve of October 25th after the Supreme Court judgment, Omehia signed away N18.6 billion out of the N18.7 billion allocated to the state that month describing the act as the height of fiscal irresponsibility.
“The monthly allocation for October was 18.7 billion, he (Omehia) signed away 18.6 billion without due process, without any advertisement, without a design for roads, without a design for jobs and paid 100 per cent in most of them, some he paid 80 per cent , some 60 per cent”, Amaechi revealed.
Amaechi told the law makers that contract for the construction of Olu-Obasanjo link road to East-West road was awarded to Bulletins and the cost of the contract paid 100 per cent even before the company could mobilize to site.
According to Amaechi, Omehia also awarded a contract of N6 billion to a South African Company, Biken Nigeria Ltd to source for consultant to design the Port Harcourt Ring Road project, recommended and supervise the construction of the road.
He wondered how Omehia came by the 6 billion paid to Biken as 7.6 per cent of the total cost of the contract when the actual cost of the contract was yet to be determined.
“As we are talking, it has not been determined what the cost of the contract is, yet he has determined that N6 billion will be 7.6 per cent of the contract,” Amaechi queried.
He disclosed that even when the contractor brought an APG of 600 million, Sir Omehia paid N1.3 billion which is N800 million in excess of the amount.
“How does Celestine account for the excess of N800 million of an APG,” Amaechi asked.
The Governor noted with regret that even after the cancellation of the contract, the money was yet to be refunded while the company was no where to be found.
Amaechi gave an assurance that he would not allow people challenge the government through fictitious, baseless and unfounded press reports ,vowing to institute legal action against such persons.
He explained that his promise to continue to look forward does not mean anybody would lie against the administration and it would keep quiet.
He told the people to hold him accountable for his actions. “Don�t just go to bed and sleep, come here and ask me what I have done with the money I have received and I will answer you”, Amaechi asserted.
The governor insisted that every citizen of the state has the responsibility to make the state move forward expressing regret that the state can no longer compete with Lagos in terms of economic and industrial development.
Amaechi disclosed that the few investors he had met during his trips to Lagos declined going to Port Harcourt to invest but preferred to stay in Lagos since according to them there is security concerns in Rivers State and secondly the people are fiscally irresponsible in government.
The governor challenged the legislators that as representatives of the people, to be alive to the responsibility of ensuring good governance.
He assured the legislators of the cooperation of the Executive to the extent that both arms would uphold the rule of law and thanked them for affording him the opportunity to sign the bills into law in their presence.
Earlier, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Ken Chikere said the Rivers State Local Government law number 5 of 2007 and the Independent Electoral Commission law number 6 of 2007 were amended in line with present realities.