Says, Delta State Government Did Not Respond
The Chief Press Secretary, (CPS), to Delta state governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Charles Aniagwu, has disowned the State Commissioner for Information, Patrick Ukah and others for responding on behalf of the state government to comments accredited to the former governor of Edo State and leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, during a mega rally of the party in Benin City, Edo State last week.
Mr. Oshiomhole had during the rally boasted that the party would extend its coast in the South-south by installing an APC governor in Delta State come 2019, but reacting on behalf of the state government in a statement signed for the state Commissioner for Information, Patrick Ukah, by his Media Assistant, Sam Ijeh, in Asaba and made available to newsmen said, the choice of words, especially the use of ‘by installing’, by the former labour leader was a manifestation of his limited knowledge of politics as against unionism were he claimed to be a master.
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But the statement by Mr. Ukah which did not go down well with governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Charles Aniagwu, took a swipe at the Information Commissioner, saying “You can imagine that where you have much more number of persons once in a while you have those who think they mean well and sometimes in meaning well, they progressed in error. I have being trying to do what is right but the outcome turns out negatively”.
Mr. Aniagwu, who expressed his displeasure on the responses made Mr. Ukah and others on behalf of the state government during a courtesy visit to the Indigenous Correspondents’ Chapel (ICC) of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council last week Tuesday, disclosed that he watched Oshiomhole live, “as perfect as Jesus Christ was and is still is, he could not ensure that his 12 disciples were in the best of the spirit.” Mr. Aniagwu posited.
“Those who are writing perhaps think they are helping us. Why should Oshiomhole insult Delta State? Let us hit him. For them they don’t know that they are adding to perception management, it is not always that way. Since Oshiomhole is no longer a governor, in which case, his pedigree has come down. So, if you as a governor want to begin to engage him, it is either you must come down to his own level.
“He did not mention Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa because I watched it live. He didn’t mention the name of my governor. He only said we are going to take the broom to Asaba and sweep off the PDP, in political calculation, it is not criminal, he is campaigning, he is a member of the other party. Were you expecting that he is going to say he will make sure that PDP wins?, adding that there was no need to respond.
“Because when we too go and campaign, are we going to say APC will stay? We will say no room for APC. Except if he has accused us for lack of performance, which he didn’t do. If he accused us for lack of performance, we will put it on the table; we will say no, you are wrong. We have done A B C D which you are not able to do. That is the only way I would have come and joined him in the ring”.
According to the governor’s spokesman, what Oshiomhole did was a side kick, “and I don’t want to join him in kicking from the side. If he wants to kick from the ring, then, let’s meet in the ring and so that was for me, it was not an issue, saying that individuals in democracy must have divergent of views and opinions.
“So it is not every opinion that does not taste nice to the taste bud that you must regurgitate and spite out. There are some even as bitter as they are, you swallow them because it come with the time. So, for us, we were not, but we will not vilify those who have decided to respond to him. So, it means that he has being reduced to that level. So, let him go and respond to them but as a government we didn’t respond as a government, we are not losing any sleep on account of that”, Aniagwu added.
