The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has lashed out at the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Thisday and Arise News Television, Nduka Obaigbena, over the accusation that the ruling party is attempting to silent the media and bully the country’s press ahead of 2023 general election.
The APC campaign council equally described the accusation as baseless, saying Obaigbena is “a blackmailer”.
The campaign council said this in a statement issued on Monday night by the Director of Media and Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, and its Adviser on Media and Communication, Dele Alake.
It stated: “It is laughably tragic that the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Thisday and Arise News Television, Mr Nduka Obaigbena, has the temerity to pretend to be a guardian of public morality in contemporary Nigerian media practice.
“The fact that this character is an unscrupulous hustler and blackmailer who has done tremendous damage to the journalism profession in the country is well known within and beyond the profession.”
The APC noted that the accusation published on the front page of Thisday was illustrative of the penchant of the two media houses under Obaigbena’s influence to peddle falsehood, adding that the media houses had been engaging in brazen political partisanship, contrary to the ethics of journalism practice.
“It is instructive that Obaigbena’s media group is isolated in making this frivolous allegation against the duo.
“Not only does Thisday newspaper publish unfounded rumours masquerading as truth, many of its columnists substitute vile and vulgar abuse for sound logic and informed analyses.
“Its television anchors, heckles and harasses their guests, particularly those of the APC in their jaundiced, flagrantly unprofessional programmes,” it stated.
The campaign council said both Thisday and Arise Television sought to bully and compel the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, into attending its Town Hall meetings with other presidential candidates.
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This, it said, was despite the APC media team’s explanation that it would not attend such programmes organised in a haphazard and uncoordinated manner by individual media houses.
The APC campaign council stated that each candidate’s campaign team has the right to adopt its own strategies for reaching out to and interacting with Nigerians.
“As we have repeatedly said, the Tinubu campaign will not succumb to the blackmail, intimidation, and harassment of Obaigbena and his media group.
“Thisday’s attempt in the said statement to justify its false news report on the purported death of one Mueez Adegboyega Akande and the attempt to insinuate mischievously that he died in suspicious circumstances failed abysmally.
“Rather than apologise for this professional lapse, it resorted to tendentious rationalisations,” the party said.
It said it was a futile attempt to link Tinubu to a drug case in the United States, noting that in 2003, the U.S. Government stated that the former governor of Lagos State has no criminal record in the country.
The campaign council added that the report showed the depths of mischief the newspaper was willing to descend to in its bid to bring down the APC presidential candidate at all costs.
The party said Tinubu is focused and would not be distracted by diversionary tactics to throw mud at him “simply because he is the obvious front runner in the presidential race”, adding that some people believed that the only way to stop the APC presidential flag-bearer was to peddle falsehood against him.
“While pretending to be a public trust, Thisday and Arise descended into the political arena by publishing lies in a way that does such a great disservice to journalism.
“In November, the paper was sanctioned by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over a fake report that INEC had ordered a probe of Tinubu.
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“Nduka Obaigbena tries to cast aspersion on the professional and personal integrity of Alake and Onanuga. They stand on a higher moral and professional pedestal than he can ever aspire to.
“It is astonishing that a man like Obaigbena can even pretend to be protecting public morality and the public interest,” the PCC stated.
It said Obaigbena was notorious for owing his staff their salaries and for owning newsprint suppliers for years without payment.
“Yet, this man dares to preach on public morality and the national interest. He even claims that Alake and Onanuga are envious of him.
“There is nothing to be envious of a man whose business practices and personal lifestyle offend every known decency.
“Alake and Onanuga can never be jealous of a man who uses extortion, subterfuge, and cheap blackmail as his working capital,” the APC campaign council added.
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