Former governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has decried the insecurity in Rivers state.
During the funeral service of the late Justice Adolphus Godwin Karibi-Whyte at Saint Augustine’s Anglican Church, Abonnema in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area, Amaechi lamented over the political intimidation rife in the state.
He extolled the virtues of the late Supreme Court Judge but said that fear has permeated the state.
“You have lost your voice. The sage has gone under and nobody is speaking. When I was Governor, I gave people voices, but they have blocked those voices. I was happy with the sermon, the Bishop indicted us.
“If you are a Governor, have you governed well? If you are a politician, have you carried your people along?
“Everyone is scared. We are going back to when Ateke held sway. We are going back to the period where we run away from our people. We are back to a period when nobody can speak. But from next year, I will begin to speak, if nobody wants to speak.
“We are all here because we need to bury a man God has blessed. I have stopped travelling because of bad weather, but I told myself, I must be at here because of Justice Whyte.
“If you knew Justice very well, you will know I was close to him. I was one of the few people he mentored. He taught me that character was essential to life.
“I was a Governor at 42, and he told me, even in my 40s, I was the oldest person in Rivers State and that I must behave like a father to all,” Amaechi said.
The late Justice Karibi-Whyte was born in 1932 in present-day Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State. He attended the University of Hull in East Yorkshire, England in 1957 and the University College of the University of London in 1962, for the Masters of Law (LLM) degree.
Before his appointment as a judge, Justice Karibi-Whyte was an Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos and Acting Solicitor-General, Ministry of Justice, Rivers State.
Justice Karibi-Whyte, CFR became Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal in 1980, Justice of the Supreme Court in 1984, and Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, at Hague, Netherlands in 1993.
