”I Regret Supporting Amaechi to Become Governor” – Dr Peter Odili

 

Former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, expresses his feelings about his support of Rivers state governor Rotimi Ameachi (now of APC) in an interview with PUNCH newspaper, saying he regrets supporting him during his campaign in 2007.

According to PUNCH, he mentioned that governor Amaechi dismantled the structure of the PDP by defecting to APC. That the party would have gone into oblivion, but for the intervention of a former Minister of State for Education and PDP governorship candidate in Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike.
In the interview, he said:

“We thought we did the right thing by supporting Amaechi to become the governor of the state. We left a united state; we also left a united party. The PDP was one, Rivers State is the PDP. There was no other party in Rivers State other than the PDP. Whatever the party hierarchy said would happen. The secretary is here to support what I am telling you here today. Continue after the cut....



With all the best intentions, we supported his political career and ambition. We thought we did what was best for the state. As you know, until a man has power and has money, you don’t really know him.
One thing is clear; we have accepted our mistake and we are determined to correct it in 2015. Who would have thought that a governor who won an election on the platform of the PDP would defect with the mandate of the party to another party? 

Who would have thought that a governor elected on the platform of the PDP would abandon the PDP to join an opposition party? The elders of the party who are here can corroborate what I am saying here today. We ran a cohesive party. We had respect for the elders of the party. We had respect for party members.”

He then continued by also saying:
“I want to thank the governorship candidate of the PDP for the 2015 governorship election and the next governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, for miraculously rescuing the party from disintegration and working tirelessly to unite the members of the party. 

By the special grace of God in February, we are going to the polls. The first election is to re-elect President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term. The second election will be the governorship election where our candidate, Wike, will emerge as the next governor of Rivers State.”