Rivers State Governor and Director General of General Muhammadu Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s life is in danger as the 2015 presidential election draws near,officials have said .
Findings have revealed that some forces uncomfortable with the governor’s growing influence and popularity may have decided to give the outspoken governor the infamous Abiola’s treatment.
This has created fears within the Buhari campaign organisation and government circles in Rivers State, but no officials within the two establishments would speak on record due to sensitivity of the issue.
Recall that Chief Moshood Abiola better known as MKO, was close to being the Nigerian president having presumably won the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
While he waited for the final results of the election to be declared by Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, Chairman of defunct National Electoral Commission, NEC, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, then Military President, had other things up his sleeves.
Babangida would not budge under national pressure to have the total results announced since about 12 states had declared Abiola was leading in the election.
Rather than declare the results, Babangida went for an annulment of the election, sparking a series of rallies and protests. At a rally in Ijeshatedo , a suburb of Lagos, Abiola declared himself President-elect.
The military said Abiola had committed treasonable felony and was arrested and thrown into detention and solitary confinement. On 7 July, 1998 the day he was due for release, Abiola died under mysterious circumstances.
Just like Abiola, in recent times, the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have consistently accused Amaechi of committing treasonable felony and are calling for his arrest.
The threat to Amaechi’s life may be opening another ugly vista in a systematic efforts to stifle his often-strong opinions on national topics as well to cage the voice of the opposition.
Meanwhile on Monday, the DSS, Deputy Director of Public Relations, Marilyn Ogar in a statement in Abuja described the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Chibuke Amaechi’s recent accusation of corruption in the Nigerian Military as inciting and unguarded.
The governor, while expressing his views recently among other factors, militating against success of the Federal Government’s to win the war against the Boko Haram insurgents in the North Eastern part of the country blamed the challenges on corruption in the Military hierarchy and not on adequate funding as public is made to believe.
