Duncan Mighty's N50 million allegation, bogus - Rivers government

Rivers State says it does not owe the artiste for a 2011 concert.

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The Rivers state government has described the allegation by musician, Duncan Mighty, that the state governor, Rotimi Amaechi, owes him N50 million as untrue.

“There is absolutely no truth in that allegation,” the state commissioner for information, Ibim Semenitari, told PREMIUM TIMES on Friday. “The question perhaps you should ask Duncan is to tell you exactly when was he contracted; when it was executed and who contracted him? It is unfortunate when some people imagine that they have attained a status that enables them blackmail others, tell blatant lies and get away with it.”

Mighty in an open letter in May alleged that Mr. Amaechi and his cabinet contracted him to organise a celebrity Youth Endorsement Concert in Port Harcourt in March 2011, for which he was given N10million upfront by a serving senator, Magnus Abe, who was then Secretary to the State Government. He, however, claimed to have since failed to receive his balance of N50 million for the project.

Mighty stated that he contracted several top artistes including Flavour, the defunct Mo’Hits Records crew, Banky W, M.I, Ice Prince, Timaya and DJ Jimmy JATT, alongside stand-up comics, I Go Die, I Go Save to perform at the concert.

“I successfully endorsed over 18,000 youths who were eligible voters for the Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi,” he said. “In pursuit of the said project, I thereafter raised funds through different sources, including personal savings, loans and credit facilities, acquired operational vehicles and branded them for the project, procured several souvenirs, printed many publicity materials, paid for venues, engaged musicians from different parts of the country, undertook logistics such as flight/Accommodation/Transportation and welfare.”

Also known as Wene Mighty, the Port Harcourt based musician, however denied receiving further contracts from the Rivers State Government.

“The rumour mills have it that the Governor of Rivers State has given me juicy contracts including all manner of flashy cars, but I stand here today to debunk such tales, because I have not received as much as a bicycle spoke from Governor Amaechi. We agreed that we should channel the on-going matter through the office of the chief press secretary to the governor Mr. David Iyofor. This we did and the (Mr. Iyofor) after hearing the story promised to help contact the governor who happens to be his boss, but to my chagrin, the chief press secretary rather stopped taking my calls up till this moment,” Mighty claimed.