Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi has described Presidential Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe’s recent comments as infantile vituperations that will be anti-productive to President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 re-election bid.
Speaking as a guest on Liberty Radio’s ‘Guest of the Week,’ Okupe had branded the so-called Save Democracy Tour by five northern governors as part of a plot to unseat Jonathan during the 2015 general election, wondering why the governors did not do the same when adherents of the Boko Haram Islamsit sect were rampantly bombing innocent Nigerians.
“You heard about five governors who said they were motivated to go round the whole country because of Rivers crisis. Is that not a national joke? It is like watching African Magic,” he had said.
“These governors that were so motivated, so passionately concerned about the ultimate destiny of Nigeria, were not motivated when the Boko Haram crisis was raging in the north to go round the north and plead on how to solve the problem. They were not concerned enough for the thousands of people that were being bombed, killed in their mosques and churches in their domains under their eyes. I feel like crying, people are opening their doors to hypocrites…
“What is the crisis in Rivers? Who is Amaechi and what is the issue that the whole country is being disturbed because of something that happened at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF). What is Nigerian Governors forum to the destiny of this country? What has it got to do with us? The Rivers crisis is something that people just latch onto to fan the embers of this anti-Jonathan emotion and to continue to promote hatred against Good Luck Jonathan. And of course, Amaechi is a willing tool, very rich and is very useful to the opposition. What you are seeing is an over dramatisation of the preparations for 2015 period.”
But responding through his Chief Press Secretary, David Iyofor, the governor expressed regrets that “small minds like Okupe” in a democracy still see holding a different opinion from the Presidenc on any issue as anti-Jonathan and fighting Mr. President.
“Again, on Saturday August 18, 2013, Presidential Assistant on Public Affairs Dr. Doyin Okupe on a radio programme, continued his grossly irresponsible, repugnant and contemptuous, albeit, feckless mission of denigrating and disparaging the person and office of the Governor of Rivers State and the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum(NGF), the Rt. Hon. Chibuike RotimiAmaechi,” the statement reads.
“In the past few weeks, we elected to ignore scurrilous statements from Okupe, as we do not wish to, wittingly or unwittingly, avail him with a sparring partner as he strives, though fecklessly yet again, to elevate his act from an attack puppy to an attack dog.
“Moreover, like most Nigerians, we believe that Okupe is an irrelevant in the political equation that no serious-minded person should take seriously. Over time, his comments and statements are akin to some sort of notice-me monkey dance in front of his boss and his band of cheerleaders.
The statement noted that it has become pertinent to alert the populace and the president that the likes of Okupe represent the very worst of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
“With an aide and adviser like Okupe, President Jonathan certainly does not need any enemy. Indeed, Okupe is more than a handful. Pray, what kind of advice will an aide/adviser like Okupe give to Mr President? The earlier Mr President purged the Presidency of characters like Okupe, the better for us all.
“Okupe sank to a new low when he falsely and indecorously claimed that Governor Amaechi used the Police to harass, intimidate and punish people unjustly and could not provide one instance or any evidence to back up his claims.
“He bragged about some phantom text messages from ‘ordinary people’ whose families have suffered grave injustice in the hands of Amaechi and, yet again, did not tell us the content and senders of the text messages. What does Okupe take Nigerians for? The phantom text messages exist only in the devious mind of Doyin Okupe.
“The Presidential spokesman then sank even deeper as he condescendingly descended to become the Chief Advocate and Defender-in-Chief of the Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Mbu Joseph Mbu, who the National Assembly has resolved categorically should be removed from Rivers State. Okupe’s warped argument is that the call for the redeployment of Mbu from Rivers State by the State government is because Mbu has refused to be a ‘tool in the hands of Amaechi’.
“Pray Okupe, if that is the case and Mbu is such ‘a professional with dignity’, why then did the House of Representatives and the Senate (who sent a committee to Rivers State to investigate the issues) pass two separate resolutions calling for the immediate removal of Mbu from Rivers State? If Okupe’s trend of agbero logic is anything to go by, his likely response would be that it’s because Mbu refused to be a tool in the hands of the National Assembly!”