Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike yesterday claimed to have uncovered a plot by the Federal Government to plant illegal items on him outside the country. The plan, he alleged, is to implicate him so that he would be quizzed by foreign security agencies. This, the governor claimed, was what was done to former Bayelsa State Governor Diepriye Alamieyeseigha in 2005.
But Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu said the government would not react to the allegation. Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) dismissed the claim. A statement by Wike’s Special Assistant on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwakaudu, said the governor’s investigations revealed that the government was using security agencies for the plot.
The statement quoted Wike as saying: "My investigation reveals that the Federal government is planning to use her security agencies to set me up anytime I am travelling outside the country. They plan to organise security to storm the hotel I am staying and say they found xyz cash in my possession; after which they would say I was arrested for currency trafficking or whatever offences outside the country.
"They will then precipitate crisis in my state and other parts of Nigeria. They will plan demonstrations to demonise me and claim I have gone outside to embarrass the country. The public odium is meant to smear me before my people and other Nigerians. It is unfortunate, wicked and unfair.“What they plan is similar to what was once done to the late Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha. They are planning what they call the ‘Alams treatment’ for me. But, by the grace of Almighty God, they will fail.
Wike said he chose to alert the public to the evil and dangerous dimension politics had degenerated in the country.“I am using this opportunity to alert the world of the sinister plot. I am a law-abiding citizen of this country and countries I visit in the course of my work or holidays. I have never dabbled into anything illegal. So, any attempt to frame me up on trumped up charges or alleged offences is bound to fail.
"What they are doing is just cheap politics. They want to intimidate the opposition into silence as they are already doing with their so-called ‘looters’ list’. It won’t work. We can’t all be intimidated. What we expect government at the centre to do is to showcase to the people their lists of achievements; why they should get a second chance. But they have nothing to show; so they are embarking on intimidation and arm-twisting tactics of the opposition.”
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Politics