Why I Joined APC - Rotimi Amaechi

State Governor and Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has again given reasons why he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Amaechi said he joined the APC to protect the interests of Rivers State which have been neglected by the PDP federal government.

He said the state suffers neglect and victimization in the absence of federal government projects in the state and the ceding of oil wells in the state to neighbouring states.

He urged people of the state to be politically conscious and become agents of progressive change to vote out the ruling PDP at the Federal level

Governor Amaechi spoke while having an interactive session with medical doctors in the state in Port Harcourt on Thursday.

Amaechi said APC holds the light to the country’s rapid development. He also said the party is the alternative to the PDP to reduce general impoverishment in the country.

He said one of the reasons for his disagreement with the Federal Government is over the Soku oil wells in Rivers State which were ceded to Bayelsa state and which the Rivers State government contested in court.

“So for Rivers State, basically that is the cause of the quarrel and you have a choice to make. The choice for me, if you ask me to advise you, is to vote out PDP and there is no sentiment about that.”

“Legally, we have not lost Soku (oil wells). We have just lost Soku to the fact that the President is from Bayelsa. When a president that is not from Bayelsa comes, he will look at the facts and the facts are there. The Federal Government in writing in the court said to court, ‘sorry, court, we made a mistake, we will correct the mistake’ and we have told Federal Government, ‘don’t call us for a meeting, go and correct that mistake. How could you people wake up in 2011, suddenly changed the map of Nigeria and take Soku into Bayelsa State!”

Amaechi said the Jonathan administration has failed to execute a road project awarded by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration to link the oil-rich Bonny Island in Rivers State.

“That road to Bonny was awarded by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. They started, they’ve done just one bridge. The road has been abandoned. Yar’Adua tried to restart it but he stopped. President Goodluck Jonathan has forgotten about that road completely despite the fact that part of the money that feeds the Nigerian economy comes from that place, Bonny. That’s where you have the natural gas plant.”.

He also disclosed that the federal government has not reimbursed the State for the N105 billion spent on the Port Harcourt-Owerri Federal Road and Eleme and Agip flyovers in the state among others.