A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress APC, in Enugu State, Princess Adaku Ogbu-Aguocha, has condemned what she called continuous attack on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama by officials of the party in the State.
Ogbu-Aguocha, who was the Enugu East senatorial candidate of APC in the 2019 general election, spoke in reaction to the recent arrest of a party chieftain in the State.
The APC Youths Leader in Enugu West Senatorial zone, Mr. Nwanjoku Okugo was arrested last Friday by Inspector of Police Monitoring Team over an alleged comment on social media that the Foreign Affairs Minister had tested positive to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
DAILY POST reports that following the arrest, the Chairman of the Party in the State, Dr. Ben Nwoye had accused the minister of using his position to oppress members.
But Ogbu-Aguocha in a statement on Sunday, said that the arrest of Mr. Nwanjoku was a result of a petition by a party chieftain to the Inspector General of Police, stressing that it had nothing to do with the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs.
She said, “although the Minister has come under extreme provocation from diabolical and divisive forces within the party in the state, as the perfect gentleman he is, the Honorable Minister has always shrugged off all the numerous slurs on his character with grace.”
The APC chieftain argued that at some point all men of truth and goodwill should admit that “enough is enough” when it comes to the scourge of fake news in our polity.
“People cannot under the cover of social media, maliciously concoct and spread fictitious stories that have no bases and publish the same to malign the image and integrity of our leaders, then turn around to cry intimidation.
“So, Mr. Nwanjoku and his sponsors should face the consequences of their fake news peddling and leave Mr. Onyeama out of it.
“Nigerians know that the Honorable Minister is a man of outstanding character and integrity and cannot be distracted from the excellent service he has been providing for the nation and Mr. President,” she said.
Another Enugu APC chieftain, Ambassador Ginika Tor, in reaction to this development, claimed that some persons were using Nwanjoku Okugo to scandalize the Honorable Minister as a Convid-19 positive person.
She described the COVID-19 claims as “a shameful and wicked allegation!”
“This is the height of irresponsibility on the part of those that hatched the news.
“Definitely we cannot continue to look the other way while our leader’s name and reputation is constantly tarnished. Mr. James Nwanjoku Okugo should be made to face the music and answer for his crimes of bandying fake news in order to ridicule the reputation of a high ranking Federal Government Official because as an adult he must have weighed the consequences of his actions before embarking on this journey,” she said.
