Leadership Newspaper is this morning
making mischief news of Governor Wike’s attendance of the Body of
Benchers meeting at the Supreme Court yesterday.
Governor Wike has been a member of the
Body of Benchers for the past 3 years and has attended their meetings as
opportunities avail themselves.
It is false and misleading to infer that
he was at the Supreme Court as a result of a statement credited to him
during his Thanksgiving Service in which according to APC sources, he
allegedly thanked Justice Odili of the Supreme Court for her advice
while he sought the restoration of his mandate.
For the avoidance of doubt, Governor
Wike’s Thanksgiving Service was beamed live across the country and it is
on record that at no time did he make any reference to Justice Mary
Odili at the event as alleged by Dakuku Peterside, the embattled, bitter
and defeated Rivers State APC Governorship candidate in the 2015
General Election.
What he did at the widely televised
event was to acknowledge the fatherly advice during his travails of His
Excellency, Sir (Dr.) Peter Odili, who is the leader of the PDP in
Rivers State and also a former Governor of the State.
That the duo of Rotimi Amaechi and
Dakuku Peterside refuse to accord elders the respect they deserve and
their pride of place in the scheme of things, should not mean that it
would be the norm for Gov. Wike to so do.
Also, the fact that they have made
themselves leaders of elders and carry on with unrestrained egocentrism
and unbridled megalomania by virtue of their fleeting political vantage
does not diminish the rights of Gov. Wike to show humility and consult
with elders whose wisdom by our very tradition is priceless.
The unwarranted and unjustified
vilification of Justice Odili by the APC in Rivers State is a clear
attempt to denigrate her status as a forthright Jurist. This and other
actions of the APC are showing themselves to be a tradition of the Party
to deliberately compromise everything of nobility in Rivers State which
they cannot possess by fundamentalist fiat.
Is it any wonder, therefore, that they
themselves decry their fitting appellation of being saboteurs, traitors,
orphans and the like? Does one unjustly and willfully subject his
kinfolk to servitude and not attract their ire in return? Have the pack
of illusionist-changers aggregated as APC also lost the place of basic
reason in addition to their loss of empathy? Where do we draw the line
on politics of treachery and why is the media, in this case, Leadership
Newspaper, allowing itself to be deliberately used to peddle falsehood
by these mischief makers?
Leadership Newspaper by this and other
sensational headlines from its stable has fallen short of the basic
ethics of good journalism. Even if he were not a member of the Body of
Benchers, does anything forbid Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, a Nigerian
citizen, from being at the Supreme Court for a legitimate purpose? If
the Leadership Newspaper was in doubt as to the reason for his presence
at the material time, did they seek to know as is expected of good
journalism or they willfully and mischievously took the path of
perdition to achieve a treacherous and paid agenda?
Truth must never be sacrificed in the service of humanity. Who does Leadership Newspaper serve?
Oraye St. Franklyn
Senior Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Social Media.
Senior Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Social Media.
Source: TRENTONLINE
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