Gunmen fire at Gov. Rotimi Amaechi's convoy



Barely 24 hours after the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, raised the alarm of plan by President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to assassinate him through operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS), he narrowly escaped death in Port Harcourt Thursday evening, as PDP thugs fired gunshots at him.

Amaechi, who was at the Government House, Port Harcourt Thursday morning for a crucial meeting with the caretaker chairmen of the 23 LGAs of the state and other stakeholders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is the Director-General of Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation and the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).

The Chief Press Secretary to the Rivers governor, David Iyofor, said in a text message at 7:33 p.m. Thursday: “Gunshots fired at Governor Amaechi.

This Thursday evening, gunshots were fired at the Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, in Rumuolumeni (Port Harcourt), Obio/Akpor LGA (of Rivers State) by PDP thugs. Obio/Akpor LGA is the home of PDP Rivers governorship candidate, Nyesom Wike (an indigene of Rumueprikom).

The thugs attacked the governor and his entourage with bottles, stones and various dangerous objects. Then, gunshots were fired at the governor. “For now, two APC supporters are confirmed injured and bloodied.

When the governor was leaving the community, bonfire was set up on the road to prevent him from leaving. More gunshots were fired at his convoy. Governor Amaechi was on a door-to-door ward campaign in the state.

The Rivers police Spokesman, Muhammad Kidaya Ahmad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), was contacted for his reaction through the telephone at 7:57 p.m., but said he was still trying to get the details.

It will be recalled that Amaechi, while raising the alarm on President Jonathan’s desperation to assassinate him, emphatically stated that the arranged DSS operatives would shoot him in his Ubima hometown, in Ikwerre LGA of the state, but would not leave Nigeria, as advised and would cast his votes for all the candidates of the APC.

The President’s wife, Dame Patience, an indigene of Okrika in Rivers state and Amaechi had been at loggerheads for many years and became worse with the governor’s defection from the PDP to the APC, thereby making it difficult for the President to get during Saturday’s presidential election, the over 2 million votes (highest in Nigeria) he got in Rivers state in 2011.

The First Lady also wants Wike, a former Minister of State for Education to succeed Amaechi, not minding the fact that both the Rivers governor and the PDP’s governorship candidate are Ikwerre from the same Rivers East Senatorial District, with Amaechi preferring as his successor, Dr. Dakuku Peterside from coastal Opobo, the headquarters of Opobo/Nkoro LGA, in the Rivers Southeast Senatorial District