The Nigeria Union of Journalists, (NUJ) Imo State Council has frowned at what it referred to as a trend where the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba whose hatred for journalists is well known, consistently uses miscreants to discredit and tarnish the image of the union.
The ridiculous aspect of it, according to the union is that those he uses for such hatchet jobs are impostors who parade themselves as journalists.
The Chairman of Imo NUJ, Comrade Precious Nwadike,stated this while reacting to a report in a section of the media purporting that journalists in the state have disowned Mazi Chinonso Uba, popularly known as Nonso Nkwa.
Nwadike, said there was never a time that Imo Journalists disowned Nonso Nkwa, who, according to him, is a renowned radio broadcaster. He further said, “assuming but not conceding that Nonso Nkwa is not a media practitioner, does that warrant that he should be stripped of his rights as a citizen of this country. We know at whose instance the spurious releases are issued. However, those who are coerced into issuing the releases don’t even understand what they are doing because they are ignorant. One of them is a photographer who knows nothing about journalism and media practice.
“When I, Nwadike had an issue with the Governor’s Relative, Emelumba mandated the same group of charlatans to issue a release discrediting me. When Chidiebube Okeoma, the Imo state Correspondent of Punch Newspapers was attacked by some overzealous security operatives attached to the former General Manager of Owerri Capital Development Authority (OCDA) the same group of impostors issued a release that discredited him.
“The story was the same when Barr Vivian Otti, who had worked for the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) for many years was unceremoniously disengaged and her salary withheld, Emelumba used the same group of hatchet jobbers who claim to be journalists to issue a release that disparaged her. So, the trend and Emelumba’s other reprehensible antics have become well known to Imo journalists who no longer take him and his cohorts seriously.
“It is very unfortunate that Emelumba, a journalist with many years experience is aiding , abetting and promoting quackery thereby tarnishing the image of our noble profession and at the same time feeding the Governor with the falsehood that all is well.
“However, what Emelumba has failed to realize is that power is transient. At most, in the next three years or less, Emelumba will cease to be the Commissioner for Information and Strategy. I hope and pray that he uses the remaining few years to mend his ways, redeem his image and address the numerous problems and attendant bad blood he created in the state, else, posterity will judge him harshly”.
