Wike recovers Rivers aircraft abandoned in Germany, flies back with it

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has recovered an abandoned aircraft of the state in Germany.

Wike, after recovering the aircraft, an Embraer Legacy 600, flew back into Nigeria with it on Tuesday after a trip to London.

Wike, who spoke with newsmen after landing at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, Ikwerre Local Government Area, Rivers State, alleged that his predecessor and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, flew the aircraft to Germany with no record of the development made available to his administration.

He said the aircraft was bought by the administration of former Governor of the state, Dr. Peter Odili.

He said: “To the glory of God, the plane is back.

“And Rivers people can see, Nigerians can see.

“It is not that we are playing politics.

“All we are saying, we never knew, nobody told us until we got intelligence that we have this asset somewhere.”

While revealing that the aircraft was abandoned at the General Atomics Aerotec in Munich, Germany since 2012, Wike added: “What is very important to all of us here today is that when we came into power in 2015, nobody handed over any report or gave us handover note to let us know where such asset of the State was, only for us to hear in 2019 that this asset is somewhere.

“Of course, we did everything we could do and we told Nigerians that the grace of God we will not allow this asset to go that way.

“We must return it for the people of the State to decide what they are going to do with it.

“I am so elated that at the end of the day, all of our struggles are not in vain.

“I thank Rivers people for the support.

“I thank the Rivers State House of Assembly for the support.

“I thank the Executive for the support.

“But for their support, it would not have been possible to spend the money we spent.

“If you hear the money we spent, it’s money that would have been put in other development projects if we were told on time of it.”