Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, has stated that Nigeria’s flaunted success in the fight against Ebola is a fallacy.
Speaking at Wednesday’s formal declaration of former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, to run for president in 2015, Amaechi said his government spent N1. 4billion to curtail the outbreak of the disease and faulted claims by President Goodluck Jonathan’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that the Federal Government successfully contained the outbreak.
“I hear PDP and Mr. President claiming the glory of having fought Ebola. I asked one simple question: Rivers state government spent N1,406 billion to fight Ebola, the Federal Government brought N200m just last week. If we were waiting for that N200m, Ebola would have spread round Rivers State,” he said.
He said his Lagos state colleague, Babatunde Fashola, was also “fully in charge of the Ebola drive in his state”.
Further deriding the Federal Government, Amaechi said “apart from announcing the number of patients, what did the Federal Government do for us? So, why did they politicise Ebola,” he said.
The World Health Organisation, WHO, had announced on Wednesday in Geneva that it may declare Nigeria and Senegal Ebola-free within days if they complete a 42-day period with no new cases.
However, Amaechi in his remarks said the battle against Ebola was not over yet. “I always tell Nigerians to hold there sanitizer, see my sanitizer because it is not over,” he said.
The Rivers governor also said the opposition APC will win the 2015 presidential election because the party now had 14 governors who had all resolved to line up behind whoever emerges as the party’s candidate after primary election.
He also urged all the party members to help the governors achieve their resolve by ensuring that they all pick their voters’ card from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. “Line up behind APC, go back home and get your voters card, we will punish this people with voters’ card,” he said.
He also said the APC presently controls three keys states of Lagos, Kano and Rivers, and warned the PDP against using security to intimidate the opposition.
“They are banking on using security against us but we shall teach them the Osun lesson. We will fight with our body and our lives, because there must be change this time. There is no aspirant in APC that is not better than the aspirant in PDP.
“APC stands for anti-corruption and the money being diverted to private pockets now can be used to provide light.
“Mr President said to us on Live TV that that he is the most abused leader in 2012 and that by 2013, there will be so much power in Nigeria, that citizens will be dancing for him on the streets, are you dancing now?, Do you have Power?,” Amaechi asked the roaring crowd.
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