Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, the governor of Rivers State, claims that the recovery and final return of the state’s Legacy 600 aircraft—a long forgotten asset—is a reality and not just a matter of politics.

Governor Wike stated this after the Legacy 600 plane landed on Tuesday afternoon at Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa in the State’s Ikwerre Local Government Area.

To mark the return of the State-owned Legacy 600 Aircraft that had been covertly left in Germany by the previous administration, Rivers ladies and youths put on some cultural performances during the brief welcoming.

According to Governor Wike, it required an intelligence report for his administration to learn about this asset, which belonged to the Rivers State government.

He said that the aircraft had been sent to distant Germany by the previous administration without any document or information made available to his administration.

“To the glory of God, the plane is back and Rivers people can see, Nigerians can see, it is not that we are playing politics. All we are saying, we never knew, nobody told us until we got intelligence that we have this asset somewhere.” – he said.

He recalled that the Legacy 600 Aircraft had been purchased by the Dr. Peter Odili-led administration to serve the interests of Rivers’ citizens, but had been relinquished by the Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Ameachi’s administration since 2012 and was housed at General Atomics Aerotec in Munich, Germany.

“What is very important to all of us here today is that when we came into power in 2015, nobody handed over any report or gave us handover note to let us know where such asset of the State was, only for us to hear in 2019 that this asset is somewhere.”

Governor Wike explained that as air travel is a more complex field, tremendous care was taken to prepare the Legacy 600 Aircraft to conduct air travel successfully.

The governor added that the State government spent a significant amount of money on the aircraft that, had his administration known about it sooner, would have gone toward other economic projects.

He said that after restoring the aircraft, the Nigerian government’s certificate of airworthiness was obtained, allowing the aircraft to return to Nigeria.

“Of course, we did everything we could do and we told Nigerians that by the grace of God we will not allow this asset to go that way. We must return it for the people of the State to decide what they are going to do with it.” – Wike said.

The Rivers state governor added;

“I am so elated that at the end of the day, all of our struggles are not in vain. I think Rivers people for the support. I thank the Rivers State House of Assembly for the support. I thank the Executive for the support. But for their support, it would not have been possible to spend the money we spent. If you hear the money we spent, it’s money that would have been put in other development projects if we were told on time of it.”

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