Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi said on Saturday that he did not appoint anyone as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.

In a statement personally signed by the minister, he denied media report that he had appointed a governorship candidate for his party in the state, noting that the said report was false.

The statement read: “On official national assignment in China, the attention of the Honourable Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, has been drawn to several wild, misleading, misguided and deliberately distorted stories and claims linking the minister who is the Leader of the APC in Rivers State and the South-South region, to a purported ‘appointment’ of a governorship candidate for the APC in Rivers State for the 2019 gubernatorial election. To clarify this fallacy, the minister restates that: “As an individual, a registered voter and a card-carrying APC member from Rivers State, it’s the Honourable Minister’s inalienable, constitutionally enshrined democratic right to back/support/promote any qualified fellow party member of his choice, to aspire to be the candidate of the party in the state in the forthcoming governorship election or any other election.

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“However, as a true and thorough democrat, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, a foundation member of the APC and a leading light of the party, recognises that the party candidates for the 2019 general elections will be chosen/elected by party members through the prescribed democratic process in the party’s constitution, rules and regulations.

“It is, therefore, preposterous, mischievous; wholly and intentionally disingenuous and deceitful for anyone to claim, allege or even insinuate that the Honourable Minister has “appointed” a governorship candidate for APC in Rivers State.”