The Integrity Group, a civil society organization, has condemned the leaked audio tape, which allegedly captured the voice of Transport Minister, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, criticising President Muhammadu Buhari and reeling out his alleged failures in the last three and half years.
The Director of the group, Livingstone Wechie in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja described the leaked audio as blackmail and fake against Amaechi and the South South region that he represents.
“Our organization describes the so-called audio leak on Rotimi Amaechi as a sheer blackmail against the South-South region of Nigeria which he represents as leading the region in the current political dispensation. It is most unfortunate that fake news has gone extreme to the point where honest, frank and private conversations can be so contrived with the aim of destroying the reputation of an individual and his region as it is in this case without doubt,” Wechie said.
He noted that playing the purported audio back to back reveals a lot of distortions on the said conversations to suit an evil end just to desperately paint the Minister in bad light before his principal and the public.
“May we state at this point that this mischievous release is squarely targeted at setting up Rotimi Amaechi up for political assassination particularly at this era of desperate campaigns and this must be taken seriously by the relevant security agencies.
“It is important to note that the audio in question though obviously manipulated still expresses issues that are common knowledge which at various fora the President himself and his wife Aisha Buhari have talked about and the heavens did not fall. It is regrettable that this plot to subtly portray Rotimi Amaechi as a saboteur and undermine the SouthSouth in the current dispensation is unhealthy for our politics and it could be anybody no matter the political party.
“The question then arises, what do the sponsors of the contrived audio seek to achieve? To what extent will bad image creation enhance the wellbeing of our citizenry? Is Rotimi Amaechi contesting any election in 2019? It is pertinent for all of us to work with INEC who is our biggest partner at this time as citizens to ensure that our elections are credible and free to protect the interest of citizens devoid of the unfounded trending falsehoods that have no bearing on our collective aspirations.
“May we state clearly that we are not a political support group of anybody. Hence we caution politicians and political jobbers alike to be more creative in their campaigns and generate competitive debates that will trigger citizenship engagement for our development. Politicians at this time must involve themselves in conversations that will deal with the fundamentals of our nationhood in pursuit of development and not to inundate the citizenry with deception and waste the time of the unsuspecting public.
“Unfortunately, while more mischievous reports and calumnies may be in the offing from various fronts against this campaign period moving forward, we charge Nigerians to be on guard and insist on candidates that genuinely put forward issue-based campaigns that will better our lives and help our citizens to live their dreams within ample opportunities and an enabling environment as we approach the 2019 general elections,” the statement added.
