TV Interview: Ebonyi Group Defends Arise News Anchor, Rejects Planned Youths Protest

The Association of Ebonyi Indigenes Socio-Cultural in the Diaspora (AEISCID) has condemned a ‘faceless group’ purportedly under the aegis of Concerned Youths for Distinguished Senator David Umahi, demanding an apology from an Arise News anchor, Rufai Oseni, over his altercation with the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, during recent TV show.

The Ebonyi Indigenes in diaspora said the youths, described as “scanty group, looking forlone, dejected and like an outnumbered horse”, neither represented the broad voice of Ebonyi youths nor the spirit of people of the state.

In a statement released Saturday in Abuja, signed by the AEISCID’s President, Ambassador Pascal Oluchukwu, it called on genuine Ebonyi youths to rise above manipulation, focus on their future, and refuse to be used to attack journalists or institutions that stand for accountability and transparency.

According to Oluchukwu, the protest by the so-called Ebonyi youth against the AriseTV anchor, for all intent and purpose and by every available fact, was the handiwork of a few misguided individuals, many of whom are known former low grade political appointees or members of the now-disbanded Ebubeagu militia who served under Umahi’s administration.

“Their actions only reinforce the culture of sycophancy and intolerance that characterized Umahi’s uncommonly dictatorial eight years in office.”

On the verbal war of words during the interview, “AEISCID notes that the AriseTV interview was a routine professional engagement where a journalist sought clarification on the cost of federal road projects under the Ministry of Works in line with the extant provisions of Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which provides that the Press must at all times hold government at all levels accountable to the governed.

“We note that such questions as posed by fearless Rufai Oseni to a public officer like the Minister of Works Engr. David Umahi on the exact cost per kilometer of the coastal highway are fundamental to transparency and public accountability; values that every public servant ought to embrace, not resist. It is therefore regrettable that rather than addressing the substance of public concern, certain individuals in Ebonyi have chosen to lend themselves as instruments of Umahi’s attack on the messenger, attempting to intimidate press freedom and conceal information about the very leadership records that has left the state’s economy and institutions in dire straits.”

The Ebonyi group, however, said during the eight years of Governor Umahi in Ebonyi, journalists were allegedly banned from Government House and some physically assaulted for asking questions on accountability, seeking clarifications or probity in governance.

“Transparency demands that no public official, past or present, should be seen to be above or as beyond the reach of the law.”

While calling on the Arise News, the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and indeed the Nigerian public to ignore the antics of the self-serving group who seek to shield powerful figures from accountability, the statement said the majority of Ebonyi citizens, at home and abroad, are embarrassed by the conduct of that protest and by the very interview that exposed a temperament unbefitting of a public officer.

“AESID calls on Senator Umahi, now Minister of Works, to comport himself with the dignity his current office demands, to respond to public inquiries with facts and humility, and to desist from actions or utterances that further damage the image of Ebonyi State and its people.”

The Ebonyi Indigenes group discribed the state as a land of proud, intelligent, and peace-loving people who cherish hard work, fairness, and truth; not rooted in sycophancy and propaganda.

“As we have done consistently, AEISCID will continue to speak for justice, good governance, and the collective dignity of Ebonyi people—wherever they may be,” it stated.