How we discovered Rivers’ aircraft secretly abandoned in Germany by Amaechi administration -Wike

Governor Nyesom Wike has revealed that the Rivers State government has through intelligence discovered a Legacy 600 aircraft owned by the state, was flown to and abandoned in Germany since 2012 by the administration of former governor and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi.

He said it was unconscionable for the immediate past administration to have surreptitiously taken a state-owned asset to Germany and abandon same there, without any documentation.

The Governor revealed that the government had spent over €3 million (N1.4bn) in efforts to repair and retrieve the aircraft which had been abandoned for 10 years.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Kevin Ebiri, who revealed that Wike had led a delegation of Rivers leaders to General Atomics Aerotec in Munich, Germany, where the aircraft had been abandoned.

Speaking during a meeting with the General Manager, Business Development, General Atomics Aerotec, Markus Froetschi, Wike explained that his administration, in a bid to recover state assets, had through intelligence discovered that the Legacy 600 jet purchased by the Dr Peter Odili’s administration was in Germany.

He said, “When we came into office in 2015, we never had an idea that our plane was in your facility. It was a matter of asking questions before we got the information that Legacy 600 belonging to our state is in RUAG, before General Atomics. We tried to make contact with you and which you obliged. So, we want to sincerely thank you for not hiding anything from us, because it is the property of the state government.

“This plane was bought in 2003 by the government of Dr Peter Odili, and by 2007 he had handed over to the next government which was my predecessor’s, now, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. While he was in office, by 2012 this plane was brought here. Reasons we do not know.”