Exclusive details concerning an evil plot by certain politicians in Akwa Ibom State to sponsor media campaign aimed at smearing the character of the State Governor, Udom Emmanuel has been uncovered, OBSERVERS TIMES learnt
According to exclusive and incontrovertible details received by our reporter, a group of journalists were approached in Lagos by certain politicians in the State with the expressed assignment to write spurious, libellous and false stories about the Governor.
The evil plot according to the details available is aimed at smearing the image and character of the Governor.
A source, who is privy to the plot revealed that about N200 million has been placed on the table as take-off fund for the media campaign, which is aimed at what was code-named “Operation bring Udom to his knees before 2023.”
However, the journalists, who were approached with huge sums of money to execute the evil plot, however, turned down the evil assignment.
According to a source close to one of the journalists; “We were shocked and morally outraged that a fine gentlemen who is seen as a highly successful governor, educated, urbane, worldly and who is working so hard to industrialize the State and change the mind-set of the people; a decent gentleman blessed with Christian values and orientation, a man of peace and development could be so vilely targeted, just to settle political scores. It is outrageous and morally reprehensible and our conscience would not allow us to be used to bring down the image of this fine and capable leader and gentleman.
“Most importantly, when we saw the news in the media about the addition of a new aircraft to the fleet of Ibom Air, the development that is taking place all over the State, even the proactive handling of the Covid-19 pandemic by the governor, and other great achievements recorded by him across sectors, we couldn’t bring ourselves to be the agents to publish falsehood and blackmail-laden stories on the governor.
“I think this is a sad commentary on the state of our politics; that a fine gentleman like the governor should be a target for smear campaign just for political purposes, this is very sad and unfortunate and we want to alert Nigerians about this style of ugly and depraved politics.
“Even though we rejected the assignment, we are however, aware that they are shopping for other journalists who may be willing to do their evil bidding and we just couldn’t keep our mouths shut,OBSERVERS TIMES report.
“That’s why we are telling Nigerians now that any smear campaign on the person of Governor Udom Emmanuel, is the handiwork of desperate politicians from the State and should be dismissed. Governor Udom Emmanuel deserves applause and not doses of calumny or sponsored false stories in the media. This brand of politics must be rejected by the people.”
Another source, who is also privy to the plot said because the first group of journalists that were approached turned down the offer, about five bloggers have been pencilled down to be approached this week while some Social Media influencers are also to have been recruited for the evil plot.