Rivers gov: Amaechi denies picking candidate for APC

A former governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on Saturday, dismissed claims that he had selected a governorship candidate for the All Progressives Congress in Rivers State ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Amaechi, who is currently the Minister of Transportation and leader of the APC in Rivers State and the South-South region, described the claim as wild, misleading and deliberately distorted stories.

There were speculations that the former governor had anointed a business mogul, Tonye Cole, as the governorship candidate of the APC.

But a statement by Amaechi’s Media Office in Port Harcourt indicated that though the ex-governor had the right to support or promote any person, he had not picked any candidate for the party.

The statement read in part, “On an official national assignment in China, the attention of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has been drawn to several wild, misleading, misguided and deliberately distorted stories and claims linking the minister, who is the leader of the APC in Rivers State and the South-South region, to a purported ‘appointment’ of a governorship candidate for the APC in Rivers State for the 2019 governorship election.

“As an individual, a registered voter and a card-carrying APC member from Rivers State, it is the minister’s inalienable, constitutionally enshrined democratic right to support or promote any qualified fellow party member of his choice to aspire to be the candidate of the party in the state in the forthcoming governorship election or any other election.

“As a true and thorough democrat, the minister, who is a foundation member of the APC and a leading light of the party, recognises that the party candidates for the 2019 general elections will be chosen/elected by party members through the prescribed democratic process in the party’s constitution, rules and regulations.”

Amaechi also described as preposterous, mischievous and deceitful to insinuate that he had appointed a governorship candidate for the APC in the state. Punch