Amaechi denies APC ‘Islamisation’ rumours
Rivers state Governor, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has denied claims the All Progressives Congress is an Islamic party, saying the party will not instigate religious prejudice in Nigeria if it wins the 2015 presidential election.
Amaechi made the remark on Wednesday during an interactive session with students of the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education in Port Harcourt, describing the party as one for progressives.
He said, “APC is not an Islamic party. This is so because when General Muhammad Buhari (rtd) was Nigeria’s Head of State as a young man, he did not Islamize Nigeria, and to do that, he needs the endorsement of the National Assembly to debate over the issue. Buhari cannot Islamize Nigeria. Don’t be perturbed by what our detractors are saying.
“I am an ardent Catholic Christian and I converse with God a lot. It is not true that APC will Islamize Nigeria. The National Chairman of APC, Mr. John Oyegun is a Christian. Bola Tinubu’s wife is also a Christian, Buhari’s cook is a Christian from Igboland, his driver is also a Christian.
”As a father to all of those Christians, Buhari gives Sunday as a free day to his domestic staff to go to church and worship God. So, no one can believe what our detractors are saying about Buhari and APC.”
He, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the stagnated political economy of the state, alleging that the Presidency and his government’s detractors were responsible for the development.
“The political economy of Rivers State has been stagnated by the Presidency and our detractors. They are all thieves who don’t mean well for our state. They caused mayhem in the last administration. We assumed office and chased them away. Now, as my tenure draws close to an end, I can see, they have brought them back.
“You and I have a responsibility to stop them from repeating what they did before. We will not allow them again to steal our funds. Imagine the missing $20 billion that was stolen. We expect that our President would have sacked all those involved in the saga. But, he only threatened to sack the former CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was only doing his legitimate duty at that time. Nigerians must have a rethink.”
