Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has pledged to arrest and prosecute owners of filling stations selling petroleum products supplied by artisanal refiners.
Chief of Staff (CoS) to the Governor, Emeka Woke, said no amount of blackmail would deter the state government from prosecuting the lawmaker representing Port Harcourt Federal Constituency II, Chinyere Igwe, whose filling station had been closed over illegal oil bunkering activities.
The statement reads: “Anybody who allows his business premises to be used for illegal oil bunkering, that premises will be shut down. Whoever allows his hotel to harbor criminals bent on destabilizing the state, we will deal with them according to the law.”
Woke, who urged Igwe to submit himself to security agencies for interrogation, however, warned him to desist from misleading the unsuspecting public with spurious claims that he was being politically victimized.
He took a swipe at the lawmaker for making derogatory remarks about the governor.
According to him, but for the governor’s benevolence, the lawmaker would have gone into political extinction.
His words: “I listened to Igwe yesterday talking about ingratitude; a man, who had been retired politically. This is the man who spent only one term in the House of Representatives and came back home. The immediate past governor, Rotimi Amaechi, chased him out of Port Harcourt and he ran to Abuja. He even contested on the platform of ACN then and lost woefully.
Source: Guardian NG
“When we had mobilized GDI and had strengthened the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), we brought him back and those he said he is speaking for now. None of them were foundation members of GDI. Wike gave him the platform, first as a commissioner and then to the National Assembly, though he didn’t win the primary. Today, he is talking about ingratitude.”
The CoS also urged media organizations in the State to be objective and abide by the ethics of journalism and resist being used as purveyors of spurious fake news.