Presidency: Dame Jonathan's PH Trip Not Targeted At Amaechi
SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, (THEWILL) – The Presidency has refuted media reports that the visit by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, to Port Harcourt last week was part of the plan to sack the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi.
In a statement issued by the Special Assistant (Media) to the President attached to the office of the First Lady, Ayo Osinlu, the Presidency condemned the report published in some national newspapers on Sunday, saying the First Lady should not be dragged into the current political bickerings in the state.
While explaining the mission of Dame Jonathan in the state, it however maintained that "Rivers is the home state of the First Lady, which makes her a principal stakeholder with all the rights and privileges to visit the state as she considers needful."
The statement reads: "We have observed reports in some of today’s national dailies which are an obvious attempt by certain interests to link the current visit of the First Lady, Dame (Dr.) Patience Goodluck Jonathan to Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, with a desire to unseat the Governor of the State.
"For the purpose of protecting the innocent public from misinformation by these interests, it becomes important for us to state the facts of the First Lady’s presence in Port Harcourt as follows:
"Her Excellence was the Special Guest of Honour at the official commissioning of the Yitzhak Rabin International School, Port Harcourt on Friday, the 15th of June, during which she also received an award from the Yitzhak Rabin Centre for African Development for her successful advocacy for women empowerment and the achievement of enduring peace in Nigeria and around the continent.
"She also featured eminently as Mother of the Day at the wedding of her brother and member of the Rivers State Legislature, Hon. Evans Bipi on Saturday.
"Later in the new week, the First Lady will formally open the South-South Zonal Office of one of her NGOs, the Women for Change and Development Initiative, in Port Harcourt. This event is to dovetail into the distribution of socio-economic empowerment items to less privileged persons.
"The First Lady will finally receive well wishers at the burial of her grandfather on Sunday, the 23rd.
"It is difficult to see how any of the activities above is associated with the political circumstances of anyone.
"Perhaps we need to remind those who are crying wolf and are being harassed by their own ghost, that Rivers is the home state of the First Lady, which makes her a principal stakeholder with all the rights and privileges to visit the state as she considers needful.
"This is besides the fact that the entire country is her constituency as mother of the nation, a situation that comes with the liberty to visit any part thereof at will."