President Jonathan Running A 'One-Man Show' In PDP – Amaechi

Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of turning the Peoples Democratic Party into a “one-man show” and of condoning “impunity and authoritarianism” in an effort to ensure re-election in 2015.

Amaechi, in an interview he granted the Financial Times of London, added that the President and his wife, Patience, were bent on removing him from office.

 

He traced his travails to a perceived fear in the Presidency that whoever was in charge of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum had the capacity to influence the presidential election in 2015.

 

The embattled governor said, “There is this fear in the Presidential Villa that whoever chairs the governors’ forum will influence the presidential election,” Amaechi told FT in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

 

In a report posted by FT on Sunday, he alleged that “what has happened has been engineered to the point where the President and his wife are trying to remove me from office.”

 

“We are seeing an absence of law and order that can breed anarchy. It seems those at Federal Government level are not interested in democracy, but impunity and authoritarianism. The President needs to check this,” the governor added.

 

Amaechi also told the FT that he had not decided on his plans for 2015. He said that efforts by some in the PDP leadership to claim that he had lost the governors’ forum vote, despite him obtaining 19 votes to his challenger’s (Jonah Jang of Plateau State) 16, was a concerning sign ahead of 2015.

 

“If they can accept 16 over 19, people should be worried,” he said.

 

But spokesman for the President, Reuben Abati, denied that Jonathan and his wife were in any way involved in Amaechi’s travails.

 

“This is all local Rivers politics,” Abati said. “It’s convenient to drag the President into this, but it is not true. All these allegations are baseless.”