A former chairman of the Ahoada West Local Government Area in Rivers State, Hon Hope Ikiriko has dismissed the allegation that former governor Nyesom Wike, now the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, deducted N20 million monthly from local government allocations during his tenure.
The claim surfaced recently in a viral video, where Victor Odili, the former chairman of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, accused Wike of making the deductions.
The allegation has recently gained traction amid ongoing political tensions between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his former mentor, Wike, over control of the state.
Ikiriko, while speaking as a special guest at an appreciation event for leaders of both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ahoada East Local Government, labeled the claim as the baseless.
He emphasized that there was never any agreement between Wike and the local government chairmen of that time to authorize such deductions from their allocations.
“Let me conclude by correcting an impression that one of my former colleagues made recently on social media.
“The former chairman of ONELGA (Victor Odili) said the former governor asked us to submit letterhead paper and sign to authorise him to take N20m from our allocation every month. That is a blatant lie. Nothing of such happened.
“On that note, let me advise you, whatever you are seeing today will fizzle out. We cannot advise any of you to join issues with any elder in the state and begin to insult people,” he said


