From Tony John, Port Harcourt

RIVERS State Governor, Nyesom Wike has chal­lenged his predecessor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, to a public debate on the logic, financial cost and so­cial value of the monorail project along Azikiwe Road in Port Harcourt.

Amaechi had recently criticised Wike for not completing the controver­sial project.

But, in its response, the state government said it would meet Amaechi for a debate on any platform, concerning projects aban­doned by the previous gov­ernment.

In a press statement by the Commissioner for Informa­tion and Communication, Dr. Austin Tam-George, government challenged Amaechi to come prepared with full explanations on other inflated contracts and unexecuted projects.

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Dr. Tam-George also asked Amaechi to give reasons for pulling down a standard, well-equipped teaching hospital complete with doctors’ quarters along Hospital Road in Port Har­court leaving weeds to grow wildly in the space were the hospital once stood.

“Will Amaechi also ex­plain how N80 billion was spent on the Rainbow Town project, near Amadi Ama that was originally desig­nated in 2010 to cost N40 billion? Why does that proj­ect remain uncompleted six years after?

“How about the billions of naira signed off by the state’s treasury in the name of the so-called Justice Karibi Whyte Specialist Hospital which is a fictional project that does not exist on land,sea or anywhere in Rivers?”

The commissioner reit­erated the commitment of the Wike administration to complete any relevant project that could uplift the socio-economic life of the people of the state.