The Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Monday Igbuya, has stressed the need for media practitioners to be thorough and be armed with accurate facts and figures in their investigative journalism He also asked them to always project the image of the State in its true perspective to counter the negative picture being presented by some individuals even as the Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Delta State chapter, Hon Itiako Ikpokpo has dismissed the story, describing it as a stupid allegation.
Igbuya who spoke while receiving the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Award of Excellence, in Legislative Competence and Exceptional Leadership in Asaba expressed disappointment at the actions of some journalists in the state.
“Those with sinister motives rush to online media to air their frivolous and malicious publication because it provides cover for litigation. They need to be mindful that true journalism is not a tool for witch hunting. Some days ago, I read a report in the socia media on the remittance of N325million by council chairmen. You don’t make allegations that are unfounded. Paucity of fund in the state, the allocation to councils has dropped drastically. Some local government areas are in arrears of salaries to their staff. Some of them do not have three million as allocation, let alone raising N3m for the House of Assembly. In fact, my local government council got N2.7 as allocation. So, how can a council that got N2.7m pay N3m? Where will the chairman get the money? Some got zero allocation. Most local governments are currently indebted to the federal government”, he said. Vanguard
