“Wike wanted beating up a Commissioner who told him the hard truth”, sacked Rivers State Commissioners open up

One of the commissioners who was affected by the Rivers State executive council dissolution has said that they were sacked because they told Governor Nyesom Wike some raw truths. The Commissioner who spoke on condition of anonymity said at their last exco session when the governor was told some truths, he was livid that he almost fought his commissioner in the exco chambers. Read what the anonymous commissioner said after the cut…

"We were like rubber stamp Commissioners just like the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. We don't talk in Executive Council meetings. Only the Governor does the talking. The Governor starts the meetings with intimidating talks and ends the meetings with even more intimidating and threat-filled talks.

"We had an Executive Council meeting, there and then we told the Governor to treat us as people that are also part of the government. One of us stood up to tell the Governor boldly that he, the Governor and only him alone is the one making all the money while the Commissioners cannot pay their children's school fees, hospital bills and other bills. He went on to ask the Governor to explain to them what he did with the over N150 billion loan he took from banks in addition to statutory allocations from FAAC running into billons. He also asked the Governor to explain to them what he used the recently released Paris Club Refund of about N35 billion for. At this point the Governor got so livid and went straight to the bold Commissioner. His ADC intervened. That intervention would put to an end a free-for-all in the Council Chambers and the Governor said, 'I have the power to hire and fire and I will activate it here and now, Simeon, announce their sack immediately, enough of this nonsense'."