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The Boards of Editors of THISDAY Newspaper and The ARISE Information Channel have accused the Presidential Marketing campaign Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of demanding the sack of its journalists over “unfavourable reportage”.
The boards, in a joint editorial revealed within the December 12 version of THISDAY newspaper, accused the PCC Particular Adviser on Media and Strategic Communication, Dele Alake, and Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, of instigating the sack of Come up TV broadcaster, Rufai Oseni, and columnist, Shaka Momodu of THISDAY.
“We additionally observe that two senior APC marketing campaign officers had individually requested that we transfer THISDAY Editor and columnist, Shaka Momodu, and The Morning Present co-host on ARISE Information, Rufai Oseni, from their present positions to cease the assaults or get reprieve from a future Tinubu presidency,” a paragraph within the editorial reads.
Background
The media organisations and the APC PCC have been at loggerheads up to now couple of months, significantly over the reporting of the 1993 alleged cash laundering and drug-related case in the US, the place the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu forfeited £460,000 in reference to the case.
In November, Mr Alake, on behalf of the PCC wrote a petition towards Come up TV, a transfer that received the station to be sanctioned by the Nationwide Broadcasting Fee (NBC).
Mr Alake’s petition was in respect of reports aired by Come up TV that INEC was contemplating investigating Mr Tinubu’s involvement within the 1992 drug case. INEC, nevertheless, debunked the information as false.
Within the petition, Mr Alake mentioned the TV station allowed friends on their reveals to label Mr Tinubu as “indicted” regardless of the proof out there to them.
Equally, THISDAY newspaper revealed one other information article claiming that Mueez Akande, one of many individuals indicted within the 1992 case, died amidst the resurfacing of the drug case. Nevertheless, it later emerged that it was Kolapo Akande, a sibling of the notorious Akande, who died.
Additionally, Mr Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the APC, refused to take part within the city corridor sequence organised by the tv station and a few media organisations. Mr Tinubu’s crew has repeatedly attacked the media organisation and accused it of bias.
Just lately, the PCC urged its supporters to boycott the tv station due to its posturing on Mr Tinubu.
Dictatorial tendencies
The boards accused the marketing campaign of exhibiting Mr Tinubu’s dictatorial tendencies even earlier than stepping into workplace.
“Think about these insecure duo of Onanuga and Alake already threatening the free press when they’re searching for our votes. What’s going to they do if Tinubu was elected President? Kill impartial media or take their markets over utilizing the facility of the state and changing them with media platforms they management and which kowtow to them?” the editorial reads.
Talking on the Mueez Akande story, the boards mentioned the households of the Akandes are but to challenge a press release on the story, therefore the rationale the medium has but to challenge an apology.
“Did THISDAY mix-up the identification (of two brothers?) We would have liked to make sure earlier than issuing an apology. We would have liked to listen to from the household. Until date we have now not heard from the household. The actual fact is that errors in reporting the demise of somebody who could not have died shouldn’t be uncommon within the media,” the editorial additionally mentioned.
Mr Onanuga didn’t reply to the request for remark as he didn’t choose up calls neither did he reply a textual content message despatched to his cell phone.
Driving an agenda
However messrs Alake and Onanuga, in a joint assertion in response to the editorial, accused the proprietor of THISDAY/ARISE, Nduka Obaigbena, of utilizing the Boards of Editors to drive an agenda.
Within the assertion despatched to PREMIUM TIMES, the marketing campaign mentioned Mr Obaigbena has no ethical proper to be “a guardian of public morality in modern Nigerian media follow.”
“Not solely does THISDAY newspaper publish unfounded rumours masquerading as reality, a lot of its columnists substitute vile and vulgar abuse for sound logic and knowledgeable analyses whereas its tv anchors heckle and harass their friends, significantly these of the APC of their jaundiced, flagrantly unprofessional programmes,” the marketing campaign acknowledged.
Talking on the Mueez Akande, the marketing campaign mentioned the editorial by THISDAY and Come up TV tried the justify the pretend information by rationalising it.
“THISDAY’s try within the mentioned assertion to justify its false information report on the purported demise of 1 Mueez Adegboyega Akande and the try and insinuate mischievously that he died in suspicious circumstances failed abysmally. Fairly than apologise for this skilled lapse, it resorts to tendentious rationalisations,” the assertion mentioned
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