ABUJA – The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions will today, submit its report on a petition against the nomination of former Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, as minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This is even as the ministerial nominee dismissed a report in a national daily (not The Nigerian Observer) that he stormed the residence of the Senate President Bukola Saraki to protest the rescheduling of his screening and confirmation as a minister.
Fielding questions from journalists, yesterday, Chairman of the committee, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, explained that his committee has concluded its report on the petition against Amaechi’s nomination and will present it to the Senate today for consideration.
Meanwhile, the committee turned down consideration of a petition against Hajia Aisha Abubakar as Sokoto State ministerial nominee.
Amaechi, who was on the first batch of ministerial nominees, had his screening delayed because of a petition against his nomination by a Port Harcourt based organization known as “The Integrity Group.”
The group claimed in its voluminous petition that Amaechi mismanaged N70 billion Rivers State funds when was governor of the state.
Amaechi, however, dismissed the allegation as part of the smear campaign against him.
However, the said newspaper report had claimed that having been incensed over the deferment of his screening last week, he went to Saraki’s house on Thursday last week and raised his voice to express his frustration before leaving the place without seeing the Senate President.
In a statement signed by Mr. David Iyofor on behalf of his Media Office, Amaechi described the report as untrue and an attempt to present him as a man with a bad and demeaning mannerism.
Amaechi specifically pointed out that he was never at Saraki’s residence on Thursday last week and added that he would never act in any way that would put the Office of the Senate President in disrepute.
“The report, which the respected newspaper got from ‘sources’, further claimed that during the visit of Thursday, last week, Amaechi was said to have raised his voice to express his frustration before leaving the residence without seeing the Senate President.
“The imagery created in the last four paragraphs of the lead report was an angry Amaechi, who stormed the residence of Senate President Bukola Saraki, raised his voice as he made a scene or caused a ‘ruckus’ to display his frustration over the deferment of his screening by the Senate, before ‘storming out in a huff’ without seeing the Senate President.
“This is absolutely not true. There is a deliberate and carefully calibrated attempt to characterise Amaechi with a very bad and demeaning mannerism. We must clarify that Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi did not visit and was not at the residence of the Senate President on Thursday of last week.
“Since he (Amaechi) did not go to the residence of the Senate President on Thursday of last week, so, there is absolutely no way what the newspaper sources claimed to have transpired, happened.
“We must emphasized that former Governor Amaechi holds the office of the President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in very high esteem and will never disrespect or act in any way that would put the office in disrepute. However, in this case, the incident reported never occurred either on Thursday or any other day”, he continued
The former governor, attributed the alleged false report to the activities of fifth columnists posing as journalists, whose aim was to malign and destroy people’s reputation and create bad blood in the polity.
“While we understand the constraints and pressures journalists face in doing their jobs, we would advise them to be thorough and double-check or even triple-check their sources of information.
“There seems to exist an axis of fifth columnists, masquerading as ‘sources’ to journalists, but fabricate events, incidences and stories that never happened to malign and destroy the character and reputation of others, while fomenting acrimony and bad blood in the polity. Journalists must beware of such sources”, he added.
