Amaechi, has said nobody can
stampede him out of the Peoples
Democratic Party.
The governor also said he did not have to
tell President Goodluck Jonathan or
anybody about his ambition before
contesting any public office.
Amaechi, who said he had yet to declare
his ambition to contest the Vice-
Presidency in PDP, spoke in an interview
monitored on the BBC programme, Hard
Talks, on Thursday.
He said, "You see what you must know is
that I believe in the rule of law. Let's
even assume, for the purpose of
argument, that an ambition exists,
nobody has the right to bring down a
state just because an ambition exists.
"It is important to say clearly that
everybody should allow 2015 for 2015; it
is a bit too early. The President is
elected to preside as the President of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and I
support that and I want everybody to
allow Mr. President to preside over the
country for the interest of the country."
According to Amaechi, there are people
around Jonathan, who abuse and
compromise power.
He added, "When the Financial Times
reporter interviewed me in Port-
Harcourt, I did make that clear. That was
the day some hoodlums were hired to
stone some northern governors, who
visited me to show solidarity."
On the crisis rocking Nigeria Governors'
Forum, Amaechi said he won his election
against Plateau State Governor, Jonah
Jang, who many believed had the backing
of the presidency against him.
Asked why he did not tell Jonathan about
his intention to contest, he said,
"Nobody told me not to run. I challenge
anybody. There is no law that requires
me to tell anyone that I was going to
run.
"That is the freedom we are looking for
in the Nigerian Governors Forum. I
didn't need to go to Mr. President to tell
him that 'Mr. President, I want to run
for the office of the chairman of the
Nigeria's Governors Forum'. I didn't
have to do that and I didn't do that. And
he, in turn, did not tell me 'don't run, I
heard you are going to run'. So, I ran,
and I didn't see the President on the
ballot, the person I saw on the ballot
was Jonah Jang.
"The result was clear that 19 governors
voted for me. He didn't object to the
fact that I won."
On the demand by Minister of State for
Education, Nyesom Wike, that he should
leave PDP, Amaechi said, "He (Wike)
doesn't have the right to tell me where
I should belong to whether I want to
belong to the PDP or not. He doesn't
have that right. We have all been in
PDP.
"Let's assume that I remain in the PDP.
Let's assume that I am running for the
office of the vice president, would my
leaving PDP not enhance that
assumption?
"The reason for remaining in PDP is
because nobody can chase me out of
PDP. I am a member of PDP and I love
to be a member of PDP. We must allow
2015 to remain for 2015. Nobody can
now state if you want to be president or
you don't want to be president."
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