Arise TV wants to embarrass Tinubu – APC campaign
Bayo Onanuga and Dele Alake, two prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), have claimed that the Arise TV town hall debate was planned by Nduka Obaigbena, the chairman and editor-in-chief of This Day Newspaper and Arise News Television, to embarrass Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the party’s flag-bearer.
The conflict between the APC PCC and ThisDay/Arise TV has gotten messy and personal.
Read Also: APC asks ARISE TV to Fire Rufai Oseni before Tinubu Would Attend TownHall Meeting, Arise TV Reacts
On Monday evening, the APC PCC attacked Obaigbena over a critical editorial by the boards of editors of media organisations in a joint statement released by Messrs. Onanuga and Dele Alake.
The PCC alleged in the statement that Obaigbena and the media outlet were corrupt and lacked the moral authority to control public discourse.
In his response on Tuesday, Obaigbena emphasised that Tinubu’s opponents in the upcoming election of 2023 were not journalists in a four-page rebuttal.
Although many APC-PCC members had personally called to denounce Alake and Onanuga’s use of blackmail, personal attacks, and bullying, the statement noted that “everyday the media calls on public officials and those who seek public office to account,” demonstrating that the APC candidate’s actions were not motivated by personal animus.
On Wednesday night, Onanuga and Alake, however, retaliated.
Also Read: Oby Ezekwesili, ex- Minister Slam Tinubu hard for Asking Arise TV to Fire Rufai Oseni
“Obaigbena attempted to divert attention away from the important ethical issues we brought up.
Nothing he said discreditably alters our accurate summary of his well-known perverse and ignoble approach to media practise over the years, a practise that has undermined and continues to undermine the profession of journalism in this nation.
Our principled stance against his blackmail to have Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu appear on Arise TV and its PDP-sponsored Town Hall meetings was mischaracterized as an attack on free speech in Obaigbena’s first statement attacking us.
In spite of our position that our candidate is already implementing another communication strategy to reach the most important target: the Nigerian voters, he insisted in the second statement that our candidate must attend his Town Hall debate.
The statement from the Media and Communication Directorates of the APC’s PCC partially reads, “We, repeat again: We will not make our candidate available to validate a scheme which, in light of unassailable information at our disposal, is nothing but a racket by the Arise TV owner, designed to embarrass our candidate.”
Thanks for using our platform to learn about the latest Naija News on Arise TV wants to embarrass Tinubu – APC campaign
Really?