CJN Onnoghen’s travails: Amaechi denies involvement; Accuses Wike of smear campaign 

Former Rivers State Governor and Minister of Transportation, Chief Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has denied being behind the current travails of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen as alleged by his successor in office, Gov. Nyesom Wike, stressing that it is another attempt by Wike to smear him and distract the people.

The denial is contained in a statement by Chief Amaechi’s media office, which also challenged Gov. Wike to name the All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain that he (Wike) said he (Amaechi) told about his alleged involvement in the purported anti-Onnoghen plot, reminding him that when his immunity lapses, he should be ready to face libel suits.

Full text of the statement reads:

We read with dismay and utter disgust another round of spurious allegations by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, at a campaign rally in the State yesterday, accusing the former Governor of the State and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of ‘the plot to destroy the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen.’

This is another blatant lie just to smear Amaechi and put him on collision course with the judiciary. Ordinarily, we would not have bothered to respond to a Governor whose stock-in-trade is to concoct stories and lie about almost everything and anything. Wike completely lacks any shred of credibility. Nothing is sacred to him

The former Rivers State Governor and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is not a judicial officer and is not part of whatever is happening in the Judiciary. We challenge Nyesom Wike to mention the name of the APC chieftain, he falsely alleged, Amaechi discussed the ‘destruction of the CJN with.’

This Wike’s latest attack on Amaechi is reminiscent of his earlier spurious allegations during the Ikoyi-Osborne-gate scandal where Wike disgracefully opened his mouth to shamelessly allege that the former Rivers State Governor, Amaechi was the owner of the 13 billion dollars and the owner of the Osborne apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos, where the money was kept. Wike lied that the money was stolen from Rivers State Government treasury.  However, in Wike’s usual chicanery, up to today, he has refused to go to Court to claim the 13 billion dollars found in that apartment which he claimed was Rivers money stolen by his predecessor. Even when a court of law openly asked anyone laying claim to the money to come forward and collect it, Wike ran far away from the court and chickened out, like the chicken he is.

Consequently, we wish to remind Wike that the immunity he currently enjoys as governor against prosecution for his many libelous attacks on Amaechi, will not last forever. At the appropriate time, he would no doubt face the full wrath of the law and ultimately, that of the Almighty God.

Governor Wike should by now know that Nigerians are tired and are no longer interested in his rantings and cock and bull stories against Amaechi. Indeed, it is pathetic and a big shame that Wike do not know that Nigerians already know him as an incurable, incorrigible compulsive liar and do not take him and/or his comments seriously.

Again, Wike’s recent outburst against Amaechi at the PDP campaign is diversionary. The Governor knowing too well that he has nothing to show for his almost four years in office to Rivers people, in a state obviously with one of the highest allocations, resorted to casting aspersions on Amaechi, instead of telling the people what he had done for the State.

We therefore call on all and sundry to ignore Wike, a frivolous, deceitful character who is obviously drunk on power and off course, alcohol- what a terrible collabo!

1. HON. CHIBUIKE ROTIMI AMAECHI MEDIA OFFICE

JANUARY 18, 2019

ABUJA