By  Gbenga Oke

Rivers State All Progressives Congress, APC, and its Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, counterpart, yesterday traded words ahead of the ministerial screening of former governor of the state, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi.  Amaechi is among the last set of ministerial nominees yet to be screened by the Senate and his screening has been a subject of division among the senators.

While PDP, in a statement, claimed Amaechi dignified corruption and would not be an asset to President Muhammadu Buhari, APC said PDP and the present Rivers State government were overwhelmed by the profile and achievements of  Amaechi, hence the resorted to blackmail and falsehood through the Internet by his detractors.

PDP, in a statement by Special Adviser on Media to the Chairman of the party, Mr Jerry Needam, said: “The APC’s recourse to tendentious gossip in an attempt to protect the embattled former governor amounts to glorifying corruption and with the woeful defeat of APC in the state, which it ran to total bankruptcy and near collapse notwithstanding the huge internally generated revenue and accruements from the federal allocations, it is commonsense to fathom why they insist in remaining in office to cover up their loots.

“Amaechi would not in any way be an asset to President Muhammadu Buhari. He lacks the integrity and morality to speak for Rivers people because his record of betrayal is evident. We describe as baseless, the defense of former Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s ministerial nomination by the APC that he will be an asset to the President.” Responding, the APC, through its Publicity Secretary, Mr Chris Finebone, said the PDP had now resorted to fake Internet news to blackmail the Senate against Amaechi’s screening.

According to him, “It has come to the notice of the Rivers State APC that Governor Nyesom Wike and the PDP in their failed bid to ensure that the Senate does not screen Amaechi, have now resorted to publishing counterfeit news items through their sponsored Internet news outlets. One of the PDP’s internet outlets is  Nigeriana.org with a fake story captioned “APC Ministerial Crisis: ‘Screen And Confirm Me or Refund My Money’ – Angry Amaechi To APC Leaders.”

Another of such fake story is by the notorious PDP  Scannewsnigeria.com  with a caption, “Ministerial Screening of Buhari’s Sponsor: EFCC arrests Minority Leader as FG intimidates PDP Senators. In both online publications, agents of Governor Wike and the PDP tried to justify the huge funds the Rivers State governor is giving to them by concocting wild stories in form of news which are put out to mislead unsuspecting and gullible online readers.”

“It is important to emphasize that Amaechi did not speak with any journalist as stated in the Nigeriana.com  story under reference. He also did not at anytime hold any discussion with associates, friends or any person/persons over the matter of his Senate screening at any time and certainly did not and still does not have reasons to discuss such issues with anyone along the lines expressed by the online publication. Former Governor Amaechi is at peace with himself and God.”