The Board of Editors of ThisDay Newspapers and Arise Television have accused the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Bola Tinubu of making attempts to muffle the media.
The board, on Monday, accused Tinubu and his spokesmen, Bayo Onanuga and Dele Alake of acting in manners that suggest that they seek to censor journalists and prevent those who question their principal from doing their jobs.
While Alake, a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy under Tinubu is the Special Adviser on Strategy in the Tinubu Campaign Council, Onanuga is the Director of Media.
“We also note that two senior APC campaign officials had separately requested that we move THISDAY Editor and columnist, Shaka Momodu, and The Morning Show co-host on ARISE News, Rufai Oseni, from their current positions to stop the attacks or get reprieve from a future Tinubu presidency,” the Board of Director stated in the editorial jointly signed on Monday.
The APC campaign council had requested the removal of one of the anchors of the TV show, The Morning Show, Oseni Rufai and one of its Columnists, Shaka Momodu over comments considered to be directly against Tinubu.
But the board of editors said both the newspaper and the television arms have been fair to all parties in the ongoing campaigns towards the 2023 elections.
“They are wrong. Truth and the pursuit thereof, and the reporting of facts is no bias. The duo has taken unprofessionalism, recklessness, picayune politics and blackmail to a new art form. After their first press statement, we ignored them; but they authored a second statement, which we again ignored, not wanting to insert ourselves into the political discourse.
“Imagine these insecure duo of Onanuga and Alake already threatening the free press when they are seeking our votes. What will they do if Tinubu was elected President? Kill independent media or take their markets over using the power of the state and replacing them with media platforms they control and which kowtow to them?” the editors stated.
“But the more we have ignored them the more they have mistaken our silence for cowardice and continued their unrelentless attacks with virulence, even threatening us with The Nigerian Press Council.
“A Press Council that has been completely rejected by the mainstream independent Nigerian media precisely for this reason: misuse and abuse by an incipient dictatorship.
The statement accused both Alake and Onanuga of mixing things and seeking to hang the the editors for carrying out their normal duties.