2015: Minister fingered in plot to blackmail Buhari, Amaechi AMAECHI BUHARI...

A plot by top government agents to portray Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State as working with the North to stall the re-election of President Good-luck Jonathan was uncovered in Kaduna yesterday. Under the scheme, which is being financed by a serving minister in the present administration, N11 million has reportedly been paid to two Kaduna-based printers to produce different sizes of posters bearing the images of former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), and that of Amaechi as presidential candidate and running mate in the 2015 poll, respectively.
The contract, allegedly awarded to two printing firms (names withheld) is for the production of no fewer than 10,000 copies of the posters with the logo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and display them at strategic points in the northern part of the country.
The copies, according to sources close to the printing companies, are to be delivered and displayed in selected Northern states before the end of the week.
“The posters will hit the streets of some states in the North at the weekend,” a source close to the printing firms confirmed yesterday.
The plot, however, hit the rocks when one of the staff of the printing company called the governor and asked if he was the one that authorised the printing job.
Amaechi, according to a source, reported the plot to the security agencies and gave the names of the printers to them for verification.
However, Amaechi also raised the alarm that he was being set up for blackmail by a minister from the South-South and appealed to Nigerians to be wary of the antics of the said man, who claims to be working for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking through his Chief of Staff, Mr. Tony Okorocha, Amaechi described the antics of the minister and his cohorts as criminal and an attempt by him to gain undeserved attention from the Presidency and the people of Nigeria.
Okorocha said that Amaechi had not made public his next political ambition and warned those plotting to drag his name in the mud to desist from such devilish act or face the wrath of Rivers people, whose mandate he is holding in trust till 2015.
He said: “We want to call on Nigerians to plead with the minister to leave Amaechi alone and face the arduous task of his ministry.
“What the minister is trying to do is to deceive the undiscerning minds in Rivers State and Nigeria so as to gain undue attention and continue to stay on in his post when he is nothing more than a mischief-maker and an expert in frivolity.”