APC dismisses rumour of crisis, says no quarrel between Peterside and Semenitari

 

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State Chapter, has dismissed rumours of a brewing crisis among its ranks, declaring that the party remains focused and united more than ever, as none of its leaders is fighting with another. The party specifically declared that there is no iota of truth in the rumour of disaffection between its governorship candidate in the 2015 election, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, and the Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mrs. Ibim Semenitari.

Ibim Semenitari

“This satanic rumour originated and being spread by the Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a wicked lie from the pit of hell and has no foundation whatsoever. We urge our teeming members and

supporters, as well as the good people of Rivers State and the general public to totally ignore it as it is a desperate strategy by the floundering PDP to shore up its image ahead of the forthcoming Assembly re-run elections, for which PDP has become jittery because of the imminent defeat staring it in the face,” Rivers APC said in a statement signed by the State Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya.

The statement issued Friday in Port Harcourt laughed off the unintelligent attempt by Rivers PDP to blackmail Mrs. Semenitari for accompanying the visiting Senate delegation to the Niger Delta on a courtesy visit to

Governor Nyesom Wike at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Wednesday. “How can the performance of a simple official duty by the Acting NDDC Managing Director amount to disloyalty to APC and a fictional quarrel with Dr. Peterside over the 2019 governorship ticket?” Rivers APC asked. “Many of the Distinguished Senators whom Mrs. Semenitari escorted to the Government House to see Governor Nyesom Wike are also APC members, so does their visit mean that they are also disloyal to the APC?” the statement asked.

It dismissed the rumour as a poor hatchet job by Wike and PDP’s propaganda team to cause disaffection among the Rivers APC leadership, adding, however: “This plot is dead on arrival because we are too intelligent and

too close-knit a family to be deceived by such a fallacious and wicked falsehood intended to distract us from the urgent task of winning the forthcoming State and National Assembly re-run elections.

“Mrs. Semenitari is an accomplished administrator who knows where to draw the line between her official duties and politics. As head of NDDC, she has a statutory role that covers the six states of South-South that includes

Rivers State plus the two states of Abia and Imo in the South-East and Ondo State in the South-West. The Senate is probing the 16 years of NDDC and if the investigating Senators are to visit the Rivers State Governor on issues

pertaining to NDDC, are we saying that the Acting NDDC MD should not accompany them because she is an APC chieftain even while most of the Senate Committee members are also APC members?

“For the avoidance of doubt, Rivers State APC Leadership, including Dr. Peterside, is happy with Mrs. Semenitari and proud of her, as her commitment and loyalty to the APC cause has never been in doubt. She has been one of the arrow heads of this struggle and one of the most persecuted among us. As a matter of fact, she was the only one invited to appear before the then dreaded National Security Adviser to erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan when the heat was on us at Rivers State. Apart from this, she was one of our Principals targeted to be assassinated by the PDP hoodlums at the Okirika rally attack. Her house in Port Harcourt was attacked immediately Wike took over as Governor and her personal jeep towed away by the Wike regime just to publicly disgrace her. So if anybody is trying to blackmail her for any reason such a person is embarking on a mission impossible.

“It is worth stressing that we have no Dakuku faction or any faction or factions but one united, compact, virile and vibrant Rivers APC under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. As for the purported intrigues about 2019, that does not deserve any attention because it just does not make sense as we cannot start talking about 2019 when we have not concluded the 2015 elections.”

APC dismisses rumour of crisis, says no quarrel between Peterside and Semenitari

Soyinka N82m Dinner: Semenitari is a pathological liar - PDP

The Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has described the explanation by the former Commissioner for Information and Communication in the Rotimi Amaechi administration, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari embodied in a press statement entitled “Rivers State Government and the song and dance about N82 Million dinner as hollow, petty and childish.

PDP

PDP said that the N82m dinner is a fraud committed under the guise of a birthday celebration for Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.

 

The party said that Mrs. Ibim Semenitari is “bitten by the bug of pomposity and dancing in the ring of illusion, adding that she thinks every Rivers person except she, is a “dunderhead”

PDP added “In a manner typical of her, she tried to explain away her corrupt practices while serving as commissioner, by appealing to the emotion of Rivers people rather than to their intellect, as she struggled to justify the siphoning from the state’s treasury, a whooping N82, 000,000.00.

“While we agree that the Nobel Laureate deserves any form of honour in any part of the world, we find it a terrible disservice to Professor Soyinka to use his name to steal public funds and mischievously pretend to be more protective of the man’s international reputation than the rest of us, thereby propagandistically portraying officials of the Rivers State Government as adversaries to the Laureate.

“How can a former Commissioner for Information and Communications become so uninformed as to misinform the unwary public and try in vain to deform their psyche.  For lack of accounting straws to cover the crime she supervised, she said the N82,000,000.00 was not used only for the party but that the expenses covered costume design, set design, drama, highlife band, dinner, transportation, decoration and logistics.

“That was what N82M, tax payers money belonging to Rivers people was spent for. What a fallacy yet Mrs. Semenitari wants the people to believe these incoherent fabrications.

“These items should naturally be expected to form an important part of the birthday celebration. If they were left out, what else would make the party a befitting one for a man of the stature of Professor Soyinka? Is it only eating, drinking and dancing in a boring ambience that would be called birthday party for Professor Soyinka of all people? How much did the listed items amount to? Are we talking of N8, 000,000.00 or N82, 000,000.00? Shame to criminals in the garments of government officials!

“A pathological liar, Mrs Seminitari during her days as Commissioner for Information and Communications, engaged in such pernicious propaganda that Josef Goebels’ propaganda art paled into insignificance before hers.  Even the public servant with the shortest memory can recall the lies she transmitted about former Governor Amaechi’s politics of denying workers and pensioners their monthly pay. Many in certain sections of, and parastatals under her ministry then, can tell of her unaccountability exploits.  Must every can of worms be exposed?

“Mrs Semenitari should be advised to concentrate her energy on ruining the NDDC under her charge with half-truths, disinformation, deception, outright lies and embezzlement of public funds which she knows how to do best. After all, no APC member can be corrupt.

Soyinka N82m Dinner: Semenitari is a pathological liar - PDP

Semenitari denies borrowing N1bn as Amaechi’s aide

THE Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, has dismissed claim by the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr. Austin Tam-George, that she borrowed N1bn on behalf of the Information ministry while she occupied the same office.

Semenitari is the immediate past commissioner for Information and Communications, a position she occupied during the Rotimi Amaechi administration till May 29, 2015.

The NDDC managing director described the allegation by Tam-George that she took the loan from the bank as false and unfortunate.

The currently Information commissioner had during a radio programme claimed that the Semenitari took the loan while she was overseeing the State Ministry of Information.

However, Semenitari, who spoke in Port Harcourt on Monday, pointed out that no commissioner had the power to borrow money on behalf of a ministry.

She said, “No Commissioner can do that (borrow money on behalf of a ministry). I did not.

This is a definite and unfortunate lie. No ministry can borrow from any bank.

“It is against financial guidelines and service rules. Only a state government can borrow and there was no project in the ministry of information requiring government to borrow.”

Semenitari challenged her predecessor (Tam-George) to show any evidence that she borrowed money from any bank while serving the state as commissioner for Information and Communications.

But Tam-George insisted that his predecessor was involved in financial recklessness, adding that the records to prove his claim were still available at the State Ministry of Information and Communications.

“The ministry insists on her financial recklessness. The records are in the Ministry for public consumption. Come and see it,” he said.

Semenitari denies borrowing N1bn as Amaechi’s aide