Senate President Godswill Akpabio has challenged former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi to provide documentary evidence supporting his allegation that Akpabio introduced a 50 per cent deduction from payments to contractors handling projects for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). In a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Eseme Eyiboh, Akpabio described the allegation as weighty but noted that Amaechi had yet to produce contract documents, payment records or details of identifiable transactions to substantiate it.
Amaechi, a former Minister of Transportation and vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, made the accusation while addressing supporters at the ADC campaign rally at the Tafawa Balewa Stadium in Bauchi State on Saturday. The former governor also criticised President Bola Tinubu over the country's economic hardship. His remarks followed what he described as recent comments by Akpabio against him in Port Harcourt.S1
Akpabio asked Amaechi to identify the contractors affected, the contracts involved, when the deductions were allegedly made and the payment arrangements through which they occurred, as well as to link him personally to the practice. "An allegation delivered before an enthusiastic political audience does not, by that circumstance alone, acquire the status of an established fact," he said. He urged the former governor to submit any credible evidence to the appropriate investigative authorities rather than use it for political confrontation.S1S2
Akpabio also turned attention to Amaechi's eight-year administration in Rivers State from 2007 to 2015, saying that record was equally open to public scrutiny. He specifically cited the Port Harcourt monorail project, which became controversial over its reported cost, incomplete implementation and failure to deliver the anticipated public transport service, as well as the Malaria-free Rivers State initiative. He argued that officials should account for expenditure, project delivery and value for money, and that questions should cover the amounts spent and the extent to which original objectives were achieved.S1
