Monday, 7 January 2019

How authentic are the alleged leaked tapes of Rotimi Amaechi?

On Saturday, January 5, some secret tape recordings allegedly containing a portrayal of President Muhammadu Buhari's administration as a dismal failure by the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi were leaked.
The tapes were released by the campaign team of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

While Phrank Shaibu, the special assistant on public communication to the PDP candidate, released the tapes to media houses, Reno Omokri, a former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan released the recordings on Twitter.

Amaechi is a key political ally of President Buhari and the director-general of the Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation.

The clips were allegedly made out of an informal interaction Amaechi had with journalists covering his ministry.
Transcripts of the tapes

The transcript of one of the two tapes read: “This country can never change, I swear. The only way this country can change is if everybody is killed. This country is going nowhere, I swear.

“Even if you divide the country into 10, it will still not change. I’m not joking o. When Magnus (Abe) was my SSG, I told him that this country is hopeless and helpless.

“He said ‘Oga, stop it now. Coming from a governor, don’t be saying that. But two months in Abuja, Magnus said this country is hopeless and helpless. I said ‘why?’ He said, you are right, the only thing they do in Abuja is share money, they don’t work.”

The second tape said: “The president does not listen to anybody. He doesn’t care. You can write what you want to write. The president doesn’t care. Does he read? He will read, he will laugh. He will say ‘come, come and see, they are abusing me here’.

“In fact, there was one case of somebody in Onitsha, a trader in Onitsha who couldn’t sell his goats during Sallah. And I was with Oga on the plane and the man was busy abusing Buhari. He said, ‘Amaechi, come, what is my business with Onitsha goat seller?'”

Another tape said: “These are not things you publish ooo. If you publish them, you will never sit with me any day.

“Three years of Buhari oo, everybody is crying, crying…pressmen are crying, farmers are crying, workers are crying, politicians are crying, students are crying, three years oo!

“The rate of poverty is very high. The people are hungry. Nigeria will never change!” 
How authentic are these recordings? What we know

At the moment of writing this piece, no Nigerian news media that have the reports have been able to independently verify the authenticity of the recordings.

Amaechi's reaction

In his reaction, Amaechi dismissed the audio recordings. When he was asked by Daily Sun for his comments on the tapes, Amaechi said: “Nothing. I am not aware of any audio recording.”

Further told that the audio was gaining momentum on different online websites, Amaechi asked: “Do I do website?”

President Buhari's aide reacts 
Tolu Ogunlesi, the special assistant on digital/new media to President Buhari has also argued that the recordings were doctored. 
In a thread of Tweets, Ogunlesi claimed that the recordings were doctored, in direct response to Omokri’s tweets.








































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