"BETRAYED? NOTHING LIKE THAT"- Amaechi

Former Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has dismissed as total fabrication and evil, a recent statement that was clandestinely circulated on the social media, saying he was bitter and felt betrayed by both President Muhammadu Buhari and a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator Bola Tinubu over the recent appointments made by the president. 

Amaechi, who appeared stunned at the tone of story and the degree of fabrications in it, to the extent of attributing quotes to him, said in a statement that whilst the brains behind the story might have taken advantage of a meeting he held with his supporters, where he had reiterated to them the fact that change had finally berthed on the body polity with the strides of the administration in 100 days, they deliberately skewed the thrust of the meeting to suit their “evil intentions”.

The former governor said the basis for betrayal was absent in the state of the nation because there was no understanding of any sort preceding the merger and the election, adding that the only thing that united everyone was the resolve to ease out an incompetent administration headed by former president Goodluck Jonathan. 

He said if the intention of the story was to pit him against the two APC leaders for obvious reasons, it has failed because “not only do they (Buhari and Tinubu) know that I would not descend so low to churning out such baloney; they also know those behind it and their ulterior intentions. So, I am neither bothered nor rattled by the arrant nonsense but however doing this for the record.

“Particularly, this response has also become imperative given the sensitivity of the issues raised and the tone they were couched. It was clear where they were coming from and it was certain, they went out for the jugular. But I am too much on the alert for such machinations to be caught off-guard. Therefore, the story is false; it is evil and completely irrational to have ties with the prevailing political re-engineering going on in the country.

“Also, for the record, it is important to note that the president’s approach to addressing the country’s multi-facet problems is most apt given the degree of rot and impunity that had reigned over the years. As such, there are two ways out: it is either we are circumspect and get it right or we haste and further plunge into crisis. But the president has adopted the most rational option, which is cautiously clearing the Augean stable.

“The promises are still there and alive and the approach to reifying them are genuinely on track. It is, therefore, sensible to see reason with the government and president in this meticulous approach else we’d find ourselves back in the Egypt we left months ago,” Amaechi said.