The Media and Communication Directorates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), led by Dele Alake and Bayo Onanuga have claimed Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY and Arise News Television, Nduka Obaigbena is undermining the integrity and ethics of journalism in Nigeria.
Alake and Onanuga made this claim in a statement they jointly signed as a response to Obaigbena’s latest comment.
Recall that Obaigbena, in his response to allegations made against him by spokespersons of the APC campaign, challenged Tinubu to appear for debates.
The Arise News Chairman had said Tinubu’s presence at debates and town hall meetings would allow the electorate to interrogate his proposed policies and programmes and choose if he would be the next President in 2023.
But, a statement by the APC campaign, claimed that Arise TV’s town hall meetings were sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to embarrass the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The APC campaign stated, “In his first statement attacking us, Obaigbena craftily attempted to mis-characterise as an attack on free speech, our principled stand against his blackmail to have Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu appear on Arise TV and its PDP-sponsored Town Hall meetings,” the statement reads.
The statement partly reads, “In the second statement, he was still adamant that our candidate must attend his town hall debate, despite our stance that our candidate is already executing another communications strategy to reach the most important target: the Nigerian voters.
“We, repeat again: We will not make our candidate available to validate a scheme which, in the light of unassailable information at our disposal, is nothing but a racket by the Arise TV owner, designed to embarrass our candidate.”
The APC campaign said, “Obaigbena tried to deflect attention from those pertinent issues we raised about ethics. There is nothing he said to creditably detract a jot from our accurate summation of his well-known perverse and ignoble approach to media practice over the years, a practice that continues to undermine the integrity of the journalism profession in the country.
“Obaigbena manufactures alternate reality. Ordinarily, we consider it beneath us as well-bred media professionals to continue to engage in a public spat with Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, a congenital blackmailer and hustler, especially in deference to ceasefire calls by well-meaning leaders and elders.
“The interventions followed our statement on Monday entitled “Obaigbena and His THISDAY/ARISE News’ Hypocritical Grandstanding On Public Morality.”
“But we crave the indulgence of these well-meaning Nigerians to allow us to respond to Obaigbena’s latest rambling, called a statement.
“The largely diversionary composition was an attempt to deodorise his ethical problems,” the APC campaign stated.
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