The Southern Nigerian Youth Alliance, SNYA, has called on foreign media to always balance their news before publications.
In a press release jointly signed by Kelvin Adegbenga (the Coordinator) and George Nwachukwu (the Publicity Secretary) of the group in Abuja, SNYA said Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi remained innocent as nobody has brought up any allegations against him in the Law court, EFCC and the ICPC.
The group said the Rivers State Probe Commission set up by Governor Wike was totally a political commission even though the main white paper did not mention of Amaechi in her final report.
SNYA was reacting to a “publication by one Paul Cahalan for The Mail On Sunday, UK”, where he said the former Rivers governor “remains in his post as Minister of Transportation despite being accused of misappropriating £338million by a commission investigating the sale of state assets.”
The group insisted that “so called Commission NEVER indicted Amaechi in the white paper available to the public.”
It added that the “Commission knows the right channel to take her report to if anybody is indicted in their report.”
“Cahalan claimed that in the Nigerian press, that Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi has been dubbed ‘ATM’ – the American term for cash machine – because of his ability to produce vast sums of money at short notice, we want to know which of the Nigerian press he cited for this biased publications.
“Cahalan also alleged that Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi misappropriated £338million according to commission investigating the sale of state assets, how much is the total allocations to Rivers State under his administration?” the group said in the statement.
SNYA asked if Cahalan can “publish the receipt or evidences for the media, consultants and private jets done by Amaechi for Buhari’s presidential campaign?”
It said “if Amaechi stand indicted, President Buhari won’t nominate him neither sent his name for confirmation at the National Assembly for confirmation as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
It challenged any group or individual that have any “allegations against Amaechi, such group or individual should go through the right channels; Law court, EFCC and ICPC, instead of embarking on unnecessary media persecution.”
“Amaechi remains the hero of democracy in Nigeria and we have no doubt about that,” the group ended.
