Amaechi: PDP painting me as a common criminal

Rotimi Amaechi, the immediate-past governor of Rivers state, has filed a legal action against Felix Obuah, chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

Amaechi is asking the court to compel Obuah and the PDP to pay him N300 billion as compensation for defaming his character.

The former governor said based on allegations that he defrauded and embezzled $757 million in Rivers, some people now view him as “a common criminal”.

“It would be recalled that in a press statement from the PDP, Rivers state chapter on August 6 and August 21, 2015, the party had alleged that Amaechi stole the sum of $757million or N80 billion of Rivers State public funds and stashed them away in an account in his name in Bancorp Bank in Minnesota, United States of America,” read a statement issued by Amaechi’s media office on Tuesday.

“Ever since the said invidious, insidious and vitriolic malicious libelous publications by the PDP and Felix Obuah to the general public, he has been inundated, bombarded and confronted by several persons who expressed lack of respect, loss of faith in him and who no longer regard him as trustworthy and now view him as a common criminal.

“That he has been confronted by persons who offer him disrespect arising from the false accusations, even though he denied committing the several heinous offences which the PDP and Felix Obuah falsely and maliciously accuse him of committing.

“The Defendants (PDP, Felix Obuah and two others) have widely further circulated the said malicious publications to the general public in the internet; these wide and general circulations of the said malicious publications have exposed the person of the Plaintiff (Amaechi) to very heavy and irredeemable ridicule, public odium, contempt and disparagement in the eyes of right thinking and reasonable members of the society including the persons already pleaded and other persons yet unknown and who will also be called upon to testify in this proceedings.

“The Defendants (PDP, Felix Obuah and two others) have continued with the republication, recirculation and widespread republishing and distribution of the said libelous publications to the general public through the internet leading to deluge of inquiries from the general public and well wishers who have severally confronted the Plaintiff (Amaechi) with the very wild allegations of the defendants and to which plaintiff denied any looting or ownership of any looted funds or looting of public funds of Rivers state.”