Okupe, Jonathan’s Worst Enemy-Amaechi

Chief of Staff, Government House, Rivers State, Sir Tony Okocha addressing members of Rivers State Leadership Advancement Foundation, during the sensitization and inauguration on LGA and ward executive at Elekhia, Port Harcourt, recently.

The Rivers State Governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has said that the worst enemy President Goodluck Jonathan has is his Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe.
A statement signed yesterday by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, David Iyofor, and made available to The Tide, condemned Okupe’s continuous unjustified direct attacks on the person of the governor of Rivers State in an attempt to deceive Nigerians on the undercurrent forces behind the crisis in the state and their reasons for turning the peace-loving state into a battle-ground for the propagation of their political ambition.
The statement recalled that, “again, on Saturday, August 18, 2013, Presidential Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, on a radio programme, continued his grossly irresponsible, repugnant and contemptuous, albeit, feckless mission of denigrating and disparaging the person and office of the Governor of Rivers State and Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum(NGF), Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
“In the past few weeks,” the statement added, “we elected to ignore scurrilous statements from Okupe, as we do not wish to, wittingly or unwittingly, avail him with a sparring partner as he strives, though fecklessly yet again, to elevate his act from an attack puppy to an attack dog. Moreover, like most Nigerians, we believe that Okupe is an irrelevant figure in the political equation that no serious-minded person should take seriously”.
According to the statement, “it has become pertinent to alert/notify the populace and Mr. President that the likes of Okupe represent the very worst of aides in his administration. With an aide and adviser like Okupe, President Jonathan certainly does not need any enemies. Indeed, Okupe is more than a handful. The earlier Mr President purged the Presidency of characters like Okupe, the better for us all.
“Okupe sank to a new low when he falsely claimed that Governor Amaechi used the police to harass, intimidate and punish people unjustly, and could not provide one instance or any evidence to back up his claims. He bragged about some phantom text messages from ‘ordinary people’ whose families have suffered grave injustice in the hands of Amaechi and, yet again, did not tell us the content and senders of the text messages. What does Okupe take Nigerians for? The phantom text messages exist only in the mind of Doyin Okupe.
“The presidential spokesman even sank deeper as he descended so low to become the Chief Advocate and Defender-in-Chief of the Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Mbu Joseph Mbu, who the National Assembly has categorically demanded should be redeployed from Rivers State.
“If Okupe’s argument that the call for the redeployment of Mbu from Rivers State by the state government is because Mbu has refused to be a ‘tool in the hands of Amaechi’, and … is such ‘a professional with diginity’, why did the House of Representatives and the Senate … pass two separate resolutions calling for the immediate removal of Mbu from Rivers State?”
The statement explained that, “with comments like that coming from a presidential aide and spokesman, Nigerians now have a better insight into why Mbu is still in Rivers State and continues to act with impunity, in spite of the call by eminent Nigerians and the resolution of the National Assembly that Mbu should go. What interests does Mbu serve for Okupe and his co-travellers that they are bent on keeping Mbu in Rivers State?
“Let us remind Okupe and his co-travellers that it took a lot of efforts, resources and strong political will and determination of Governor Amaechi to restore peace, security and order to Rivers State from the dark days of pre-October, 2007. To destroy all that in the name of politics, portends grave danger for our polity and will do no one, more especially, the Presidency any good. No responsible government plays politics with the lives of its people”, it added.
The statement insisted that, “it is certainly uncharitable and hypocritical for Okupe to falsely allege that Amaechi is a ‘willing tool’ to any person or group against President Jonathan,” asking, ”where was Okupe when Governor Amaechi led Rivers electorate to overwhelmingly give President Jonathan over two million votes, the highest by any state, in the last presidential election?
“For the likes of Okupe and his fellow travellers in the Presidency and Abuja, Governor Amaechi only became ‘willing tool to the opposition’ when he refused to cede any part of Rivers State oil wells to a neighbouring state, and stood firmly to defend the rights of Rivers people, … and  insisted that governors alone should determine who would be the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and not some hawks in the Presidency.
“It is indeed a sad commentary on our nation’s democracy that a presidential aide would see nothing wrong and even dismiss the harassment, stoning and attacks on visiting governors from the northern states to their colleague and NGF chairman, Governor Amaechi in Rivers State by a group floated, financed and promoted by a serving minister in the government.
The statement admonished Okupe to check his persistent invectives and outbursts against Governor Amaechi and other Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, as this would not help Mr President or the PDP to win elections in 2015, adding that Nigerians were more interested in what the PDP-controlled Presidency is doing to better their lives.