Infrastructure Award: Buhari Urged To Probe Wike’s Nomination

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to investigate how Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, was nominated as a recipient of the Infrastructure Award.

Describing the planned investiture on Wike as “misplaced, unwise and unmerited”, he accused the governor of exchanging tax payers’ money for the award.

Eze, in a statement made available to our correspondent in Port Harcourt yesterday, also called on Buhari to rescind his decision to honour the governor with the investiture, slated to hold in Abuja on October 21, 2022.

The APC chieftain said: “As government that is peculiar in fighting corruption, it will be unwise to have anything to do with a governor that has myriad of corruption allegations on his neck, to the extent of honoring him with an award investiture after he had bribed federal government officials with millions of Rivers money just to get what he does not merit as exposed by the Sahara Reporters.

“As at today, the governorship candidate he foisted on the PDP, Mr. S. Fubara, still holds sway as an employee of the state government (civil servant) and this is against the rule of neutrality in the civil service.

“He neglected the Supreme Court judgment which derecognized Celestine Omehia as a former governor, concocted a law, recognized him just to undo his predecessor, and all of a sudden, he has unmade the law to derecognize Omehia because the later has found for himself a political direction up north.

“Everything he does is against the law yet he belongs to the Body of Benchers. This calls for question.It is the resources of the state that is stressed here and this should be a source of concern to the federal government.

“If Wike should be honoured because he built 12 flyovers within one major road in a local ggovernment area, Obio-Akpor, then what award will the FG give to Governor Umahi of Ebonyi State who has built 16 flyovers scattered in almost half of the local government areas in Ebonyi State?

“What award are we to give to the Governor of Borno State, who, not minding the insecurity ravaging his state, is changing the face of Borno State.

“What about the Governors of Delta, a silent multi-sectorial achiever? What of the Cross River State Governor who sees tomorrow, what award are we to give the Lagos State Governor whose inputs have surpassed all the inputs of the last administrators of Lagos State.”

Last week, Wike had during a live media chat said he was surprised to get a letter of notification and invite as mail from the presidency on the award.

Wike, who insisted that he never lobbied to be nominated, described the award as “most deserving and worthy to celebrate.”