Nigeria's Rivers Sate Governor denies funding Ghana's NDC

Mr. David Iyofor, Senior Media Adviser to the Governor of Rivers State of Nigeria, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has challenged publishers of the Pointblank.newscom news website to help any investigative body with proof that the Governor funded the National Democratic Congress' campaign for Election 2008 through former President Jerry Rawlings.

Describing the allegations as 'arrant nonsense' and a figment of the imagination of a mischievous writer, Iyofor who spoke to the media in Accra Thursday to deny the allegations, said he was surprised the spurious allegations elicited so much publicity in the Ghanaian media when nobody back in Nigeria is talking about it because of its obvious unreliability.

The Ghanaian media last week were awash with the publication originated by the news blog which imputed criminal conduct on the part of the Governor and suggested he had misappropriated state funds, including doling out a $3.5 million cheque to former President Rawlings to help the NDC prosecute its electoral campaign.

He said since the publication, in furtherance of its malicious intentions, quoted a so-called cheque for former President Rawlings, the writers should be patriotic enough to put out which bank was to honour the check to help any persons or body interested in seeking the truth, to pursue the matter.

“It is complete rubbish!,” he said, adding , “It was no story at all.

Iyofor, who bore copies of the Governor's signed denials to the allegations, which also detailed his discomfiture and the embarrassment the publication has caused him and his family, said he was also surprised that the Ghanaian media also fed heavily on the story and republished it without as much as seeking to get to the bottom of the matter, a process he said would have uncovered the publication and its source as highly unreliable and needlessly scandalous.

“It's a simple thing, this can be confirmed, you give a $3.5 million cheque to Rawlings, it must go through the banks so let him come and tell us which bank in Ghana or which bank in Nigeria was the cheque cleared from…”

Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline