Imo State Government has alleged that one of its critics has begun moves to reach Governor Hope
Uzodimma to strike a deal to stop the verbal attacks on the administration.
According to Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, the critic, has made contacts with friends of the governor, offering to “cease fire”, if an undisclosed sum of money was paid to him.
In a statement, yesterday, Emelumba noted that the demand from the critic has vindicated the government’s earlier position that he was neither fighting for the public nor is he motivated by morality.
“When we described him as an extortionist and blackmailer, the public thought we were too hard on him, but now it is clear that frustration and hunger are his sole motivation for his unwarranted and unsubstantiated allegations against the governor. “
Emelumba disclosed that many friends of the governor and government officials have been reached by this same critic, asking that he be settled as a condition to stop his baseless attacks on the governor in the media.
Said he: “We can confirm that he has reached out to several people, including some government officials asking them to convince the governor to release some money to him to stop the baseless attacks on Uzodimma.
One of such persons he reached is a Lagosbased businessman, whom he spoke on the phone with, on Wednesday, and later sent his Opay account number for his ticket to Lagos to seal the deal. We have records of similar conversations.”
The commissioner described as unfortunate the activities of the critic, who was offered an opportunity to serve as a commissioner but failed woefully on the job.
He said the most painful aspect of the whole saga was that the critic’s case files in the police where he was indicted for stealing government property were still open.
On whether the government was considering buying the silence of the critic as he is demanding, Emelumba said he should perish the thought as Governor Uzodimma has nothing to hide