Yenagoa, Nigeria
26 October 2011
AMATEUR FICTION: HUHUONLINE ON GOVERNOR SYLVA
Our attention has been drawn to a mischievous story titled: “Gubernatorial
Race: Gov. Sylva Threatens to Kill President Jonathan, His Wife… If”,
published by your online medium, Huhuonline.com on 25 October 2011.
In the story, you wickedly alleged that Governor Sylva had during a phone
conversation with former Bayelsa State Commissioner of Health, “Dr. Eruani
Azipanu” threatened to kill Mr. President and his wife should he be denied
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial ticket for the February
2012 election.
You also went further in your vicious tale to state that Governor Sylva in
the said call admitted to be one of the financiers of the dreaded militant
sect, Boko Haram, and that he threatened to unleash them on the state if
he is removed as Governor! This call, you further claimed, was the reason
for the recent emergency meeting of the Nation Security Council and a
beefing up of security around the President.
No doubt, it is election time once again in Bayelsa State during which any
means is fair by those who believe that the best way they can rule Bayelsa
is to hijack power through the back door and not by the popular mandate
freely given by the people. It is also given that the owners of
Huhuonline.com have sold their souls to those people bent on ruling
Bayelsa at all cost and therefore owe their paymasters a duty of
concocting and publishing unsubstantiated stories about the Governor, no
matter how ridiculous.
Nonetheless, this latest story by Huhuonline.com is, to say the least,
crude, bizarre and diabolical. It is only evil minds that can speculate
evil of that magnitude. The story is fiction at its amateurish lowest.
It is completely stripped of every sense of decency and decorum.
Huhuonline.com has simply taken all the known ethics of journalism or
citizens journalism to the pigs.
That story though meant to paint Governor Sylva black in public view is
also not fair to President Goodluck Jonathan whom its promoter or group of
promoters are desperately seeking his attention.
It is unthinkable and shocking that that a private phone conversation
between the governor and a former commissioner has now become the major
tool for Huhuonline.com’s obsession with speculation and blackmail.
Governor Sylva enjoys warm brotherly relationship with President Jonathan.
The Governor was in the frontline of the campaign for a Jonathan
presidency, convinced that Dr. Jonathan has what it takes to transform
Nigeria. If this story is one of the several attempts to put a wedge
between Jonathan and Sylva, its promoters should know that they have
failed again.
To pause and ponder a little, not even a fool will dare pull a phone call
and threaten to kill the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and his wife. The consequences are too
grave to imagine.
Since the reality of our emerging security challenges dawned on us all,
President Jonathan has risen to the occasion and had on several occasions
called emergency meetings of the Security Council to fashion out innovate
security responses. To say the last emergency Security Council meeting,
which was well advertised in the media, was to respond to a telephone
conversation is absurd and unfair to Mr. President.
Governor Sylva is a man of peace, patriotism and great achievement. His
role in the Niger Delta Amnesty Initiative is well documented. He abhors
violence and will never use that road for his political ambition. It is
simply cheap and amateurish to link him with Boko Haram.
Elections in Nigeria are not conducted on the Internet. Let the promoters
of this story sell themselves to the Bayelsa people. Governor Sylva has
endeared himself to the people of Bayelsa State through his laudable
development, people-oriented programmes. He is focused on the
consolidation of his development agenda for the state. By the Grace of
God, Sylva is the Governor today through popular mandate. He is seeking
another popular mandate. By the grace of God, the will of the people will
prevail.
God Bless Bayelsa!
DOIFIE OLA
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
Bayelsa State, NIGERIA
