Leadership Newspaper is this morning making mischief news of Governor Wike’s attendance of the Body of Benchers meeting at the Supreme Court yesterday.
Governor Wike has been a member of the Body of Benchers for the past 3 years and has attended their meetings as opportunities avail themselves.
It is false and misleading to infer that he was at the Supreme Court as a result of a statement credited to him during his Thanksgiving Service in which according to APC sources, he allegedly thanked Justice Odili of the Supreme Court for her advice while he sought the restoration of his mandate.
For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Wike’s Thanksgiving Service was beamed live across the country and it is on record that at no time did he make any reference to Justice Mary Odili at the event as alleged by Dakuku Peterside, the embattled, bitter and defeated Rivers State APC Governorship candidate in the 2015 General Election.
What he did at the widely televised event was to acknowledge the fatherly advice during his travails of His Excellency, Sir (Dr.) Peter Odili, who is the leader of the PDP in Rivers State and also a former Governor of the State.
That the duo of Rotimi Amaechi and Dakuku Peterside refuse to accord elders the respect they deserve and their pride of place in the scheme of things, should not mean that it would be the norm for Gov. Wike to so do.
Also, the fact that they have made themselves leaders of elders and carry on with unrestrained egocentrism and unbridled megalomania by virtue of their fleeting political vantage does not diminish the rights of Gov. Wike to show humility and consult with elders whose wisdom by our very tradition is priceless.
The unwarranted and unjustified vilification of Justice Odili by the APC in Rivers State is a clear attempt to denigrate her status as a forthright Jurist. This and other actions of the APC are showing themselves to be a tradition of the Party to deliberately compromise everything of nobility in Rivers State which they cannot possess by fundamentalist fiat.
Is it any wonder, therefore, that they themselves decry their fitting appellation of being saboteurs, traitors, orphans and the like? Does one unjustly and willfully subject his kinfolk to servitude and not attract their ire in return? Have the pack of illusionist-changers aggregated as APC also lost the place of basic reason in addition to their loss of empathy? Where do we draw the line on politics of treachery and why is the media, in this case, Leadership Newspaper, allowing itself to be deliberately used to peddle falsehood by these mischief makers?
Leadership Newspaper by this and other sensational headlines from its stable has fallen short of the basic ethics of good journalism. Even if he were not a member of the Body of Benchers, does anything forbid Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, a Nigerian citizen, from being at the Supreme Court for a legitimate purpose? If the Leadership Newspaper was in doubt as to the reason for his presence at the material time, did they seek to know as is expected of good journalism or they willfully and mischievously took the path of perdition to achieve a treacherous and paid agenda?
Truth must never be sacrificed in the service of humanity. Who does Leadership Newspaper serve?
Oraye St. Franklyn
Senior Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Social Media.
