Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, on Tuesday, April 28th, 2020 begged journalists in the state, saying the disagreement between him and them was not intentional.

Umahi, who described the issue as a case between “a father and his son”, remarked that it was better to always work hand-in-hand with the media.

Governor Umahi had last week ordered the arrest of the correspondents of Vanguard and The Sun newspapers in the state for allegedly reporting fake news on military invasion in Ebonyi communities and Lassa fever.

After the that, the governor went further to bar the journalists from the Government House for life, adding that they should not come near government facilities.

However, in a statewide live broadcast on Tuesday, April 28th, 2020, the governor called on the media and Nigerians to disregard the occurrence, stressing that both his government and the media were partners-in-progress.

Umahi said,

I have said that the unfortunate incident with press was not intentional but I am asking everybody to disregard what has happened. This is because we are all partners in progress and let us work together. But I will advise that you please cross-check information.

I specifically asked that Sun and Vanguard reporters be invited to this broadcast; as a father, when you beat a child with one hand, you bring the child back with another hand.

I believe strongly that if anybody wants to intentionally bring you down, he can’t pull you down standing; he will certainly go down with you. And you may even rise above him. But the single way to be happy in life is to be happy with success.

He added,

I want to invite the press for partnership and also ask them to also please help build the state. Nobody said you should do preferential reporting. Nobody said you should not report the truth or report falsehood because our state is peculiar. Everybody has forgotten what happened; let’s work together.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.