The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) and Media Adviser to the Imo State governor, Oguike Nwachukwu, has described as false, “recent reports trending in the social media that the Imo State governor Senator Hope Uzodinma who was part of the APC delegation to Benin to monitor the Edo governorship election held on Saturday September 19 had rejected the result as announced by the INEC, Oguike also denied reports that the governor spent N3billion or N5billion on the Edo election.
In astatement issued in Owerri on Monday September 21, the Media Adviser claimed that the news of the governor’s rejection of the election result and report of the alleged huge sum of money allegedly unpurportedly spent by him on the election were only derived from the figment of the imagination of the writers who he described as mischief makers who are only out to discredit the governor.
Mr. Nwachukwu said that the authors of these continued fake stories are already known but stated that these fake stories cannot distract the governor from his avowed duties, focus.
He stated that in one of the reports, it was claimed that Governor Uzodinma spent N3billion, while a fake Reuters report claims that he spent N5million on Edo governorship election.
The writer of the fake Reuters report, one Stan Walden New York (obviously a fake name), claimed the money was squandered to appease the ruling party.
He noted that no doubt, the authors of the fake reports are obviously the same characters we have always known who have been signing off press releases using the name and Office of the Chief Press Secretary/ Media Adviser to give their criminal, selfish and foolish intents, some measure of credibility and colouration.
“The recent Edo State governorship election, like many others in the past involving Distinguished Senator Uzodinma, has provided them with yet another opportunity to feed the public with lies, lies and more lies, a vocation that seems to be their only known source of livelihood.
In their desperation to discredit Governor Uzodinma on the outcome of the Edo governorship poll, they have cast innuendos; insinuating that he has rejected the outcome of the governorship election and that he had accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of being compromised, and that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will get judgment from the tribunal.
Their insinuation also includes that the governor said that the entire process was marred by irregularities from INEC officials who, they claimed, sabotaged the system.
Obviously relying on the position of Governor Uzodinma as the APC Deputy Chairman for the Edo Governorship Campaign Council, the criminal-minded writers of the irritating fake news did not stop at that. They had insinuated that the governor described the entire exercise as shameful”, he wondered.
He said if the authors of the reports still have some brain in their heads, something would have told them that since Governor Uzodinma is neither from Edo nor Chairman of the APC Media Campaign Council, the mischief they were primed to accomplish will not fly. “Of course they don’t have sense.
They were also so daft to know that the governor was not a candidate in the said election and would not have spoken on an election he was not a candidate.
But they could not have advised themselves rightly because having been paid princely to discredit the Imo State governor, their sense of reasoning would automatically be blurred.
The hallmark of credible news report is the voice the writer adds to it and Reuters could not have published a report that dwells on hearsay like the one many may have been deceived to think as having emanated from that respected news medium, but we know, did not.
To also say that in the buffoonery, nay tomfoolery, of those who said Governor Uzodinma rejected the Edo governorship election result, they signed off with the name of the Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser in a press release purportedly issued on September 19, 2020, but with a template that actually read May 20, 2020, tells a lot about their desperation to blackmail the governor and everything he stands for, using every opportunity at their disposal.
We have always known, since the coming on board of this administration, about the existence of stuntmen who maintain templates with which they pull off stunts mainly fake news, thinking they will derail the 3-R mantra vision of Governor Uzodinma. That, to us, is mission impossible because the governor knows where he is headed with Imo people.
Governor Uzodinma’s passion about taking Imo out of the woods, particularly from the grips of political hawks and merchants of blackmail whose umbilical chord seems tied to fake news and other negative tendencies that cause disaffection cannot be derailed.
He has refused to be distracted, even with the fake news that members of the public are fed with from time to time, because he is quite aware of the reason for them”, he boasted.