THE Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has alleged that a senior officer of the Nigerian Army, Maj-Gen. Jamil Sarham, now retired, ordered his assassination during the 2019 general elections, following the directive from the then minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi.
Speaking on a television programme, recently, Wike also alleged that many of the opposition governors then, who now complain of persecution, have not faced the kind of threats he endured while in office, explaining that he boycotted a recent security briefing at the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) based on lingering concerns when he realised that Sarham now works there.
According to him: “Gen. Sarham, former General Officer Commanding (GOC), 6 Division, Port Harcourt, tried to kill me. Amaechi promised to make him the next chief of staff.
“Gen. Sarham ordered that I should be shot. When I heard that he is now in the NSA office, I refused to go there.
“Gen. Sarham ordered that as a sitting governor, that I should be shot. And when the Colonel refused, he was detained for six months.”
The minister accused Sarham of transforming the 6th Division headquarters into an “INEC office” to rig the vote in Amaechi’s favour, likening the federal incursion to “what is happening now in Gaza.”
He reststed: “Gen. Sarham ordered that I should be shot. That’s why, when I heard he’s in NSA office, I refused going there again.
“The officer he sent to shoot me refused, and he detained him for six months.
“Amaechi promised to make him the next chief of Army staff.”
Sarham, who succeeded Maj-Gen. A. Oyebade (rtd) as the 29th Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in 2020, clashed with Wike, then governor of Rivers State, when he was appointed GOC in 2018, amid the Niger Delta’s oil theft and militancy.
Over 20 deaths were reported, including corps members, during the 2019 general elections in Rivers State, with INEC halting voting amid violence and bias allegations against federal forces in favour of then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
Wike, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, had accused Sarham’s troops of cordoning his residence on February 15, 2019, ahead of rescheduled polls, describing it a prelude to murder, a claim denied by the military at the time, which described them as “bogus and unsubstantiated.”
Indeed, it later accused Wike of offering Sarham “billions of naira” to compromise the election.
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