By Chris Nomjov
Embattled former Rivers State governor and ministerial nominee, Rotimi Amaechi, has rubbished reports that he alleged visited Senate President, Bukola Saraki or wrote him, over his footdragged ministerial screening.
In a statement by his media aide, David Iyofor, Amaechi denied visiting the Senate President to lobby for a safe landing and refuted claims that he was angry with Saraki over his delayed screening.
According to the statement, ”There was a report that Amaechi “was incensed over the deferment of his screening last week and stormed Saraki’s house to register his protest. It is absolutely not true.
“There is a deliberate and carefully calibrated attempt to characterize Amaechi with a very bad and demeaning mannerism.
“We must clarify that Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi did not visit and was not at the residence of the Senate President on Thursday of last week. Since he did not go to the residence of the Senate President on Thursday of last week, there is absolutely no way what the newspaper sources claimed to have transpired, happened.
“We must emphasize 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.
“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’”, the statement said.
Like NewsWireNGR reported earlier, the long wait for Amaechi’s ministerial screening may go on, even though the Senate Ethics committee has promised to to avail the findings of its investigations into the petition filled the former Governor’s nomination by President Buhari.
