Rivers to confirm state of govt aircraft in Germany

PORT HARCOURT – Rivers State Government will today, confirm the state of one of its aircraft allegedly abandoned by the Rotimi Amaechi administration in Germany.

The state governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, weekend, during an interaction with newsmen at Government House, Port Harcourt, said he was sending an aide to Germany to know the state of the aircraft.

He said that since there was no formal handover to his administration by former Governor Amaechi, it was difficult for the government to make categorical statement on the state of the aircraft.

He said he gathered that one of the aircraft was lying somewhere in Germany while another one was at the Air Force Base, Port Harcourt.
He said: “We are sending somebody tomorrow (today). I got security information that the plane is parked somewhere in Germany. As I speak to you, there was no report, no handover to say this is where it is it. There is another one parked at the Air Force Base. I heard it will take about two months before it will be fixed.”

The governor added that his administration had recovered vehicles belonging to the state government which were allegedly looted.

He challenged the former Commissioner for Information, Mrs Ibim Semenitari, to show proof that a bullet-proof Lexus SUV recovered from her Port Harcourt residence was bought for her by her husband.

The governor also linked the inability of the previous government in the state to pay salaries and pensions till the end of its tenure to improper planning.

He said there was no way the state should not have cleared all salaries of workers and pensioners if it had maintained financial discipline.

The governor also alleged that several withdrawals were made for alleged ridiculous items a few days before the May 29 handover date, stressing that the account of the state was almost in red.

Fielding questions on several issues, the governor said he would prefer a review of the allocation formula where state governments should get a higher percentage than the Federal Government because of the responsibilities at the state level.

“I will support a review of the revenue allocation formula. The state should have more than the Federal Government. But if you don’t plan well with what you get, you can’t pay salaries,” he said.

On the recent sack of over 400 staff of the Rivers State Polytechnic, the governor said that what he did was merely suspension of an employment process.

According to him, the staff were only given letters of employment in April this year, barely one month before the last administration bowed out, adding that his administration will look into the process of the employment critically before taking the next step.