The board of editors of THISDAY newspaper and ARISE News on Monday said the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) demanded the sack of Rufai Oseni, the co-host of Arise News’ The Morning Show.
The board, in a joint editorial published in the 12 December edition of THISDAY newspaper, also accused the council of requesting the sack of Shaka Momodu, an editor and columnist of THISDAY.
According to the board, the demand to lay off the journalists was instigated by “two senior APC campaign officials” over the attacks on the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
“We also note that two senior APC campaign officials had separately requested that we move THISDAY editor and columnist, Shaka Momodu, and The Morning Show co-host on ARISE News, Rufai Oseni, from their current positions to stop the attacks or get a reprieve from a future Tinubu presidency,” a paragraph in the editorial reads.
“The boards of editors of THISDAY newspaper and the ARISE News channel would like to state without equivocation that we do not fire journalists because of their views.
“Facts are sacred and opinions free is the age-old dictum to which all free-thinking men subscribe. We allow our editors the freedom to air their opinions unfettered and have created the office of the Ombudsman to take any complaints and discipline any abuse of office by any of our staff members.”
The media organisations and APC’s PCC have been at loggerheads in the past couple of weeks over the reportage of Tinubu’s candidacy and campaign activities.
Tinubu has refused to participate in the town hall series organised by ARISE News since the commencement of political campaigns for the 2023 general election.
During his interactive session at Chatham House in London last week, he revealed that he snubs town hall meetings and media debates because the organisers are only trying to use him to make money since he’s a marketable individual.
Meanwhile, APC’s campaign council, in a statement by its director of media and publicity, Bayo Onanuga, accused the ARISE News of being biased against Tinubu and vowed not to participate in any debate organised by the television station.
The council also asked its spokespersons and supporters to “steer clear of this station over its consistent unprofessionalism and bias against our candidate and party.”
In November, the PCC wrote a petition to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) demanding sanctions against Arise News and another media house for allegedly airing programmes to disparage its presidential candidate.
In its editorial, THISDAY/ARISE News’ boards of editors said the attacks by the campaign council intensified after the publication in the THISDAY edition of 18 November 2022 of the death of one Mueez Adegboyega Akande, an associate of Tinubu mentioned as being involved, by US authorities, in a drug trafficking investigation of the APC candidate in 1993.
However, despite the unwarranted attacks by Onanuga and Dele Alake, the council’s special adviser media, communications and public affairs, THISDAY and ARISE News assured the APC, its PCC, and Tinubu of unbiased journalism with regards to the 2023 presidential election.
“We will continue to be open, unbiased and professional. However, we will not be intimidated by the bullying tactics of some APC campaign officials. As Michelle Obama said in response to Donald Trump, when ‘they (Onanuga and Alake) go low, we go high’, for the greater good of journalism and Nigeria,” the board said.
“A journalism that holds leaders accountable to the people by always telling truth to power. In the words of Othman Dan Fodio, ‘Conscience is an open wound, only truth can heal it.”
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