NIGERIA (Rivers)-Governor Rotimi Amaechi has declared yesterday that only God would determine who succeed him as the next governor of Rivers state.

He said this at St. Barth’s Anglican Church, Bera Deanery, during thanksgiving service organized for Senator Magnus Abe, who was thanking God for his survival in the attack on him by the police at a Save Rivers Movement rally in Rumuola, Port Harcourt.

Amaechi said the next governor would be somebody of reliable character, who would continue after him in transformation of the state.

He said: “You must prepare for the next election, so that you will teach them a lesson and the only way to teach them a lesson is first to pray to God, after praying, go and register, if you don’t have a voter’s card.  If you have a voter’s card, wait for the election and vote against Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

“I have not started praying for who will take over from me.  When I start, you will know.  The prayer for now is God, we want you to deliver All Progressives Congress, APC.  God, we want you to lead us to build a party called APC.

“The moment we are convinced that we are finished with that, I will put my knees again on the ground, and I will tell my wife and I will tell my pastors. Usually, when we go to God, we don’t go with a name. If you go with a name, you are not asking God to make a decision, you are telling God I have made my decision. God, please make this decision for me, so that we don’t meet failure in the course of the struggle and once God chooses whoever will be governor, I believe that all of us will work together to support the person because all these things we have done so far, if we don’t get the right person in, they would collapse. They will spend four years stealing money before they remember that you exist because we know them.  We have documents, they have served under us.”

He described Senator Abe as a true patriot and thanked lawmakers of both upper and lower chambers for coming to grace the occasion.

 “I thank the senators and members of the House of Representatives and I thank those of you who have come. It shows friendship, it shows loyalty to friendship and I believe that being loyal to friendship means that that person will pay you back when it is your turn.”