The attention of the office of Sen. Samdaddy Anyanwu and his Campaign Organization have been drawn to a fallacious and unethical publication on the Cover page of Trumpeta Newspaper of Tuesday 22nd October, 2018 with the caption, “Samdaddy, OkeyEze Drag SDP Guber Ticket”.
We could have chosen to ignore the obvious display of rascality and gross unprofessionalism exhibited by the publication but for the teeming supporters of Sen. SamdaddyAnyanwu, the reading public and indeed the generality of Imolites who the publication was no doubt targeted to misinform.
We view the publication as a deliberate attempt to bring the integrity and personality of SenSamdaddyAnyanwu into public opprobrium and circumvent the ongoing court case on the outcome of the last PDP guber primaries in Imo State, which also tantamounts to contempt of court.
We are not unaware of the article written in the column of one of the publishers of the newspaper on Friday 18th October, 2018 titled, “Imo PDP: A word with Ihedioha, Samdaddy”, where he displayed unbridled bias and clear cut aversion to the governorship ambition of Sen. SamdaddyAnyanwu.
According to the Friday column, SenAnyanwu accepted the result of the PDP guber primaries and later went ahead to challenge the outcome in court. And in the opinion of the column, challenging the result of the guber primaries in court is therefore a taboo and Sen. Anyanwu should be seen to have committed one.
Coming therefore on the next edition to hit the newsstand with the screaming banner of Sen. Anyanwu’s imaginary dragging of SDP guber ticket with OkeyEze is akin to a witch crying in the night and a baby dying the next morning.
This is very worrisome in a State where the media, especially the print media is fighting so hard in setting agenda for good governance and moral uprightness.
For the records, Sen. SamdaddyAnyanwu as the highest political office holder in PDP in Imo State will never leave the party for any individual or group of Individuals. His decision to challenge the result of the party’s guber primaries is not against the party, but is in furtherance to his peaceful disposition and believe in the rule of law as a person that felt shortchanged.
We view as mischief the widespread but falsely held notion that Sen. Anyanwu actually congratulated Hon. EmekaIhedioha after the result of the guber primaries was hurriedly announced. The fact which remains sacred is that after the hurried announcement of the result by the electoral committee chairman, Hon. Ihedioha rose from a distance where he was sitting to embrace Sen. Anyanwu who openly and innocently responded.
We do not find any issues with the above conduct, but coming to make political capital or insinuate that the gesture of opening his arms to welcome an embrace is an acceptance of defeat is quite ridiculous and most uncharitable, especially when some naive individuals that pride themselves to be lettered have also joined in this malicious narrative. If this is the only proof of a “credible” guber primaries, then the court indeed has enormous work to do.
We challenge any person with evidence of Sen. Anyanwu’s congratulatory message on the result of the primaries to go ahead and make it public. This is not to say that it is wrong to congratulate a fair winner, but everything is wrong when we begin to throw up issues that are not factual.
Sen. SamdaddyAnyanwu only went to court to challenge the process and the result of the guber primaries after he was briefed by his agent on the night, and after carefully going through the video recordings of the entire primaries which was fraught with irregularities, but we leave it to the court to decide. This is his inalienable right, and he cannot be cowed by people who will rather choose violence as a means of settling grievances.
Finally, we demand from the publishers of Trumpeta Newspapers an unreserved apology within 48 hours or be ready to produce the evidence of their defection story. The gentle stride of a lion, of course is not a sign of cowardice.
