By Ekemini Simon
Policy Alert, a Civil Society Organisation working on fiscal and ecological justice in the Niger Delta has called on the aides to Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State to stop what it described as a campaign of falsehood and veiled threats against its organisation.
It could be recalled that following Policy Alert’s recent reports which exposed Governor Umo Eno’s projected spending of N8.1bn on 180 Sport Utility Vehicles, budget for already commissioned projects and acquisition of N1.2bn loan were counter-reports from the media aides of the Governor tagging the organization as “false alert” and also claiming that Policy Alert has offered apologies after its reports.
In a press statement issued by Policy Alert on Wednesday and signed by the Executive Director of the organisation, Tijah Bolton-Akpan, Policy Alert (PA) noted that the said reports by the aides to the Governor is designed to generate public ill-will against the organisation, denigrate their image as a respected arrowhead of citizen agency in the Niger Delta, and cow its team into silence.
The statement said that the first in the series of articles, tagged “False Alert by Policy Alert, and authored by Anietie Usen, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Umo Eno on Media and Publicity, tried to downplay the expertise and pedigree of Policy Alert while it ended up not establishing a single falsehood peddled by the organisation.
The statement read “Rather the writer took the clearly unnecessary trouble to screen-grab and splash the pictures of PA team members and our operational address in his article. While PA has nothing to hide, we cannot ignore the sinister sub-text in this part of the article’s content, as it potentially exposes our team to attacks.
“A second write up from Ernest Akpan, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Local Media, falsely claims that our organisation had apologized for its recent reports on illegal loan and controversial budgeting in Akwa Ibom State. It did not, however, cite a source where the alleged apology was published or mention the name of the Policy Alert staff who apologized on behalf of the organisation.”
The organisation stated that it stands by its position on the said issue and has at no time apologized as alleged in the article which it described as mischievous stressing that there was no reason to do so.
“We are shocked that an appointee of a governor could descend so low as to blatantly lie against PA and we are interested to know if he was doing so on behalf of his employer”, the statement added.
The organisation called on agents of the Government of Akwa Ibom State to discontinue what it described as a campaign of falsehood and mischief against them and rather concentrate on supporting the fledgling administration to grapple with urgent governance challenges.
Policy Alert noted that ” This statement has been issued not only to correct the deliberate misrepresentations of our organisation and the work we do but also to draw attention to the veiled threat against PA. On the latter, let it be known that our local and international partners have been put on notice”.