A University Don, Prof. Ezekiel Dikio of the Department of Chemical Sciences of the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island-Amassoma, Bayelsa State has again cautioned politicians to be mindful of their utterances as the nation gears up for the next year’s general elections.
Dikio regretted that “Our politics now operates outside safe and tolerable boundaries and the nation will pay dearly for the desperation and limitations of those who ought to show leadership and responsibility”, adding that such divisive actions were capable of further threatening the already distressed democratic process.
In a statement, Dikio pointed out that whipping up ethnic and religious sentiments at this period when the country is going into electioneering campaign activities, would be counterproductive, saying that he was deeply concerned over some unfolding developments in the nation’s politics.
The professor of Physical/Nano Material Chemistry used the medium to clear the air of his alleged comments against President Muhammadu Buhari, reportedly extracted from a private WhatsApp group, saying that the author of the said online publication misinterpreted his comments and hurriedly went to press without hearing from him.
Dikio, who described Muhammadu Buhari as a fine gentleman with his own Ideologies, stated that he has nothing against the person of the president.
He said linking his alleged comments to his brother, Col. Milland Dikio, the immediate past Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme was quite unfortunate, pointing out that he has never been a staff of the Presidential Amnesty office, neither does he work for the All Progressive Congress (APC) federal government that appointed Col. Millan Dixon Dikio (rtd).
Dikio described the statements credited to him in the online publication as a witch-hunt and an attempt to lay false charges against him purposely to misinform the public, adding that the act of misrepresentation was maliciously calculated to harm his reputation and his rising profile.
He stressed that such cheap blackmail and campaign of calumny was orchestrated to tarnish his hard earned image, saying that he has since forgiven the sponsors the defamatory insinuations meant to discredit the Dikios, informing that the said statements were copied and forwarded and not original statements.
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