No one can prove I stole Rivers State money – Former governor, Rotimi Amaechi say
No one can prove I stole Rivers State money – Former governor, Rotimi Amaechi say
Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, has denied allegations that he embezzled money meant for the development of Rivers state when he was governor. Amaechi said this while speaking at a stakeholders’ forum on corruption organized by the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja today July 28th.
“If you had followed the Rivers State government when I was governor, we were the first state to introduce the Public Procurement Law in the country. The state cabinet used to call the Director General of Public Procurement in the state as an alternative governor, that they wanted an amendment to that law. The reason they wanted amendment is that he (DG) refused to increase the threshold to one hundred million naira, per ministry, instead he reduced it to 10 million naira. I had a battle with him (DG BPE) and the world bank who insisted that we should not go for an amendment but should persuade him to increase the threshold. I remember the cabinet tried to go to court against him and I remember that he was also trying to go to court against Commissioners. In fact, the procurement DG wrote a memo that I felt was very incriminating requesting that since the law requires the governor to take any commissioner who doesn’t comply with the public procurement law to court, I should please take the commissioner of education to court for not complying… Everybody in the cabinet felt that he was an alternative governor, they felt that he was slowing the process,” he said.
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