The former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Umana, has warned blackmailers to leave him alone.

Mr Umana, in a statement issued on Tuesday by his spokesperson, Iboro Otongaran, said there have been an “orchestrated campaign of calumny targeted at him in the last one week” because of ministerial appointments in President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

“My position is that blackmailers, those who fabricate stories and those who peddle false stories to malign me because they want ministerial appointment, should leave me alone.

“They ought to know that the appointment of ministers is the sole prerogative of the President,” the statement quoted Mr Umana as saying.

A fake letter by a faceless group which pretended as if it was working in Mr Umana’s favour regarding who should be appointed a minister was circulated on Facebook recently, and from there a few members of the APC in Akwa Ibom began attacking the former minister.

This happened despite Mr Umana’s disclaimer on the group and the content of the letter which was addressed to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume.

“It should be noted that when a group under the name of Akwa Ibom APC Renaissance issued a false flag write-up last week upon which all the subsequent vitriolic publications have derived their justification, Umana saw through their ill-intent and issued a prompt disclaimer.

“Umana stands by the letters and spirit of that disclaimer,” Mr Otongaran said in the latest statement.

A PREMIUM TIMES reporter investigated the origin of the fake letter and found out that it was authored and pushed into the social media apparently with the intention to attack Mr Umana’s credibility before President Tinubu and the APC national leadership because of the race for ministerial appointments.

Apart from Mr Umana, a former presidential aide, Ita Enang; the 2023 APC governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom, Akan Udofia, and a former commissioner in the state, Victor Atai, are among those in the state reportedly interested in becoming Mr Tinubu’s ministers.

President Tinubu has till Friday, 28 July, to constitute his cabinet, going by Nigeria’s constitution.