BY: Vitalis Ugoh, Calabar
National Publicity Secretary of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and the Patron of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Cross River state, Bishop Emmah Isong has advised Cross Riverians to learn to ignore certain media reports especially the one credited to the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to governor Bassey Edet Otu that the immediate past government of Senator Ben Ayade was issuing approvals through WhatsApp chat room if we must move forward.
Bishop Isong gave the advice while speaking to some media practitioners in Calabar on Wednesday over the said report.
According to him, “Cross Riverians should ignore whoever flashed that report. I am speaking as the Patron of NUJ that people should avoid media reports that will unnecessarily over hit the system and create imaginary issues.
“The state governor Sen.Bassey Otu is not here to witch-hunt anybody but to lay a new foundation and like I prayed at the Solemn Assembly in Calabar recently, that God should heal our land. To me the new Chief Press Secretary just had a parley with his own constituency and I can vouch that he is competent to pilot the affairs of that office effectively and certainly journalists will enjoy his tenure”.
He said, “WhatsApp or no WhatsApp, nobody has produced the WhatsApp approvals and there is no WhatsApp message that can tantamount to approvals. As far as I know there was a Bureau that approved Budgets and there was an Accountant General and due processes followed in financial transactions”.
“I was the Chairman of the State Anti Tax Agency and we handed reports to the transition committee and there was no such issue like approvals on WhatsApp. People are just struggling to create emenity between the former governor and the new governor. They want to create an imaginary conflict. The vehicle is sucked in the mud and while we are trying to push it to jumpstart, nobody should take us backwards”.
Bishop Isong who is the General Overseer of the Christian Central Chapel International (CCCI) said “the terrain of the last political dispensation was so complicated that even if you cough or sneeze people will misunderstand you. You know that in Cross River state we are lucky that the state produced an APC governor to succeed a sitting APC governor which shows a seemless transition.
“The new CPS means well for the state. Be that as it may it does not mean that there were no infractions on some past policies and as far as I know no person or government is perfect”.
