Cole debunks Wike’s $50m fraud allegation 

• APC asks clerics to be cautious in offering church platforms to politicians
Factional All Progressives Congress  (APC) governorship candidate in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has debunked Governor Nyesom Wike’s allegation that  $50m was transferred to his account by former Governor Rotimi Amaechi for private business purposes.

Recall that Wike, during a thanksgiving service in Port Harcourt last Sunday, asked Cole to explain how his firm (Sahara Energy) allegedly received the said sum from the Rivers State Government during the administration of Amaechi.

Cole explained that there was nothing to say about Wike’s allegation because the contracts and all the documents could be accessed by members of the public through Freedom of Information Act (FOI).

He said: “This is an issue that is in the public domain. In other words, you all have the FOI bill. The contracts and all the documents are available for everybody to go and take a look at.

“Do take a look at it, research it yourself and see exactly what happened there. It is not hidden.”

Cole wondered why after seven years down the line, nobody has indicted or invited him to any court to answer any case relating to the allegations levelled against him by Wike.

He added: “I am sure that when you see it (contract documents), you will also explain why seven years later there has been no court case, no indictment and we are still moving around freely.”

MEANWHILE, the APC in Rivers State has called on clergymen in the state to desist from offering their church platforms to individuals with a track record of “irresponsible verbal incontinence from desecrating the church pulpit in the name of politics”.

The state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Chris Finebone, who made the call, yesterday, in reaction to Wike’s comment during a thanksgiving service in a church at the weekend, expressed regret that as soon as Wike was given the opportunity to speak he abused the opportunity.

Finebone said the height of the governor’s utterances was when right in the front of the Lord Bishop of Niger/Delta North dioceses and that of Bishop of Ikwerre diocese, he invoked thunder on the Ijaw National Congress(INC) that had earlier given the governor a 48-hour ultimatum to release one of their own, Fara Dagogo, from incarceration ordered by the governor.

The publicity secretary called on the church to desist from offering platforms to politicians such as governor Wike from desecrating the holy pulpit of God.