In response to Rotimi Amaechi’s recent remarks on the subject of legally foreclosed non-indigenous land being abandoned, the Rivers State Executive Council has accused him of attempting to sow discord between Igbo and the state’s residents.
In an effort to rally support for his political godson and APC governorship candidate Tonye Cole, Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers, made a promise that if Cole won, he would give Igbo owners their property back that had been declared abandoned by the military government right after the Nigerian Civil War.
But following the State Executive Council meeting, which was presided over by Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, the Rivers State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor, SAN, criticized the former minister’s assurance in a speech at Government House in Port Harcourt.
Adangor called Amaechi’s offensive attempt to use the contentious subject of abandoned land that was deemed legally closed and could not be reopened as a political football “distasteful.”
“You’ll remember that the Abandoned Property Edit No. 8 of 1969 formed the Abandoned Property Custody and Management Authority and saddled that authority and responsibility with handling the property of non-indigenous people left neglected during the Civil War,” he stated.
The validity of the statute has been examined in a number of court rulings, including the Supreme Court’s, and it is still in effect. No court decision has ever found it to be unconstitutional.
So, it is clearly harmful, if not entirely inaccurate, for anyone to attempt to politicize the subject of abandoned property. As far as we’re concerned, the case has been legally resolved and cannot be brought up again.
According to the attorney general, Amaechi did not mean well for Rivers State by engaging in destructive politics over the issue of abandoned land.
And we must denounce it in its entirety, he continued. Every rational person in this society must oppose it because it is disgusting and unworthy of a leader.
Dr. Tammy Danagogo, the secretary to the Rivers State government, emphasized that the State Executive Council strongly denounced Amaechi’s irresponsible attempt to rouse the ghosts of the abandoned property issue in Rivers.
I’m sure that everyone, including us all, is aware that the issue has long since been put to rest and that doing so would no longer be useful or viable. It defies logic to think that anyone would wish to take politics that far.
We are pleading with every Rivers resident, as well as our Igbo brothers who have coexisted peacefully with us, to disregard that erroneous statement, which we can all agree was made in an effort to garner political mileage.
Chris Finebone, the state’s commissioner for information and communications, remarked that it appears Amaechi has selective amnesia.
He noted that Amaechi had closed the case of abandoned property while serving as Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly for many years.
He questioned why the same Amaechi would vow to revisit the subject of abandoned property today solely for political purposes, misleading Igbo elders in an effort to get elusive votes for Tonye Cole.
“This is what has astonished people today not just in Rivers State, but even in Bayelsa,” he stated. We have received calls from all over the world denouncing this type of rascality, so it defies belief that someone who most likely had no understanding of the problem of abandoned property would just enter politics and try to profit from it by promising people things he himself is unable to provide, much less something he is bringing in to provide.
