‘Lies and fake news’ Arise, Thisday chairman/EIC replies APC Media Communication Directorate

The chairman/Editor-In-Chief of Thisday newspapers and Arise television, Chief Nduka Ogbiabena has reacted to the fake news outburst of Bayo Onanuga and Dele Alake, supposedly on behalf of the APC PCC.

The Tuesday release from the office of Nduka Obaigbena CON titled “The Fake News from Bayo Onanuga and Dele Alake” read in part “We read with dismay Messrs Dele Alake and Bayo Onanuga’s continued vehement personal attacks, supposedly on behalf of the APC PCC Media Communication Directorate (many APC PCC members have called us to dissociate themselves), on the Chairman/Editor-in-Chief THISDAY & ARISE News Channel, Nduka Obaigbena, and his media group.

“Every day the media calls on public officials and those who seek public office to account. Since the media is a public trust, we will respond to the duo’s allegations in a comprehensive manner, even if we are not bound to so do, as we do not seek public office. But we believe we owe it a duty to our audiences who may have read the lies and fake news reminiscent of the Nazi Party’s chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels, or the incorrigible Iraqi Ali Hassan al-Majeed, otherwise known as Chemical Ali, who was still propagating his country’s successes in the 1990 Gulf War long after the allied forces had taken over the capital, Baghdad.

Earlier,the Board of Editors of THISDAY/ARISE News on Sunday accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council’s (PCC) Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga and its Director, Strategic Communication, Mr. Dele Alake of attempting to silence independent media, cower as well as bully free press ahead of the 2023 general elections in what they described as a copycat style of former US President, Donald Trump against independent media.

In a joint statement titled, “Tinubu and THISDAY/ARISE Media Group and the Attack on Free Speech,” they pointed out that in at least four separate press statements and interviews in the last three weeks, instead of Onanuga and Alake responding to issues or sending a petition to the organisation’s Ombudsman, have variously accused the group of bias against the APC Presidential Candidate, Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“They are wrong. Truth and the pursuit thereof, and the reporting of facts is not biased. The duo has taken unprofessionalism, recklessness, picayune politics and blackmail to a new art form. After their first press statement, we ignored them; but they authored a second statement, which we again ignored, not wanting to insert ourselves into the political discourse.

“But the more we have ignored them the more they have mistaken our silence for cowardice and continued their unrelentless attacks with virulence, even threatening us with The Nigerian Press Council.

“A Press Council that has been completely rejected by the mainstream independent Nigerian media precisely for this reason: misuse and abuse by an incipient dictatorship.

“Imagine these insecure duo of Onanuga and Alake already threatening the free press when they are seeking our votes. What will they do if Tinubu was elected President? Kill independent media or take their markets over using the power of the state and replacing them with media platforms they control and which kowtow to them?” the editors stated.

The editors pointed out that the attacks intensified since the publication in the THISDAY edition of 18th November 2022 of the death of one Mueez Adegboyega Akande, a Tinubu associate mentioned as being involved, by US authorities, in a drug trafficking investigation of the APC candidate in 1993.

“Did THISDAY mix up the identity (of two brothers?) We needed to be sure before issuing an apology. We needed to hear from the family. To date, we have not heard from the family. The fact is that mistakes in reporting the death of someone who may not have died is not unusual in the media.

“But then a quick statement from the family of the person so reported having died, as happened when the media mistakenly reported the death of the late nationalist and past President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in the ‘90s, would have quickly laid the matter to rest.

“Most newspapers, including the national television stations (Except THISDAY) made the error, and was quickly corrected. THISDAY later became the first newspaper on May 12, 1996, to exclusively break the true story of the passing of Nnamdi Azikiwe,” they added.

However, for some strange reasons, Mueez, since the publication of the story, has not disowned the THISDAY report that he was not dead, nor has any of his family members.

Therefore, the editors stated that they found it curious that it was the APC Presidential Campaign Council that would issue a statement that the person that died was Kolapo, not Mueez.