The National Coordinator of the South-south Leadership Forum, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe has said that but, for the decisive moves by the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, Governor Sim Fubara would had resigned his position following the over bearing attitude of his predecessor, Chief Nyesom Wike, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory in the management of the funds of the State and the running of government.
This was as he said that the FCT Minister, is someone who wants to get everything just as he was trying to take over both the APC and PDP in the State, adding that when somebody wants power at all cost, it is usually not the best.
Sara-Igbe, who disclosed thses on Saturday when he featured on Channels Television, said that Fubara was tired of Wike’s tight hold and total control of the affairs of the State in spite of his leaving office, adding that the former governor was the person directing how Governor Fubara should run the affairs of the state.
Sara-Igbe, who was Chief Security Adviser during the administration of former governor Peter Odili, said that it took the intervention of some PDP leaders in the state before Governor Fubara reconsidered his position of resigning.
In the words of Sara-Igbe; “What is the problem? Wike has come to tell the world that he was fighting Sim because Sim wanted to take his structure. What is the structure six months after elections? We are not close to elections, so what has structure got to do?
“Let me tell you about the structure. Before Wike left government, the state was making over N10bn Internally Generated Revenue IGR) monthly. When he left, the IGR came down to N6bn. The governor, a former Accountant General of the state, asked questions, and in the process, he engaged somebody to look at the books, and the commissioner of Finance reported to Wike, and the former governor got angry. That is the structure.
“Secondly, the money coming from the federation account, Wike tied the money to one project or the other. So, when the money comes, it goes to the banks, and they collect theirs from it and pay the contractors.
“Of course, we didn’t even know the cost of the contracts, so when this governor felt, ‘how will I run a government when I don’t have the resources’, the minister became hostile to the governor, and the governor said, ‘Okay, let me resign if that is the case’.
“The PDP elders prevailed on him not to resign, thinking it would be messy. Fubara opted to resign because apart from the way forces above him prevented him from asserting his independence, he didn’t have enough control over the state’s funds and had difficulty running his government.
He further said; “You cannot make somebody a governor; a very important seat in Nigeria – that was the seat Odili sat and he almost became the president; that was the seat (former governor Rotimi) Amaechi sat and he connived with others to remove a sitting president; that is the seat Wike himself sat and became a superman – and you are asking somebody who is on that seat to be subservient? But the governor is still loyal,” he said.
Sara-Igbe also said that Wike knew about the defection of the 27 former PDP Assembly lawmakers to the APC, adding however, that Wike, who is a lawyer ought to know that such a move would cost the Assembly members their seats.
In his words; “I am a father to some of them. I know their personal grievances, but they cannot do what they did without the support of their godfather. They believe Wike and Sim were having problems and because of that, they leveraged that to get at him (Sim).
“Even before the impeachment saga, some were threatening the governor that if he did rubbish they would get him removed from office. But the governor is a calm person, and I believe strongly that this is one man who loves Wike so much and has sacrificed so much for him before he became governor and even after,” he said.
