I’ll explain about Azirwan on Monday: Riau Islands Governor

Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam | Archipelago | Sat, October 20 2012, 6:30 PM

Riau Islands Governor Muhammad Sani has denied that he received an order from Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi to dismiss graft convict Azirwan from his position as head of the province's maritime resources and fishery agency.

"You [journalists] are the ones who want to see him dismissed. I beg you, no more news about Azirwan until Monday, please wait until a weekday. I won't say anything today," Sani said on the sidelines of a meeting with a street vendor's association in Batam on Saturday.

Recent reports say that Sani had agreed to dismiss Azirwan after the home minister talked to him by phone and asked him to dismiss the former Bintan regional secretary.

Azirwan was sentenced to two-and-a-half years on Sept. 1, 2009 after Corruption Eradication Commission officers caught him red-handed trying to bribe lawmaker Al Amin Nasution for the conversion of a protected forest in Bintan. However he was released in mid-2010.

Sani said there were too many rumors about Azirwan's promotion, including the twist of the minister's statement asking Sani to dismiss him.

"Sometimes the news is just… I never think about it, you [journalists] think too much," he claimed.

He said he would only explain everything, including the rumor about the voluntary resignation of his deputy Soeryo Respationo related to the Azirwan controversy, in a press conference on Monday. (iwa)