A Rivers Peoples Forum (RPF), a socio-political group in Rivers State, has
accused African Independent Television (AIT), owned and run by Chief
Raymond Dokpesi, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, and the
Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) of working for the PDP and
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
Reason:
They refused to show a documentary packaged by the group to show the
true situation of things in Rivers State.
“This
is not only a danger to free speech in Nigeria, but a real threat to
the practice of democracy in the country,” the group declared.
A
statement signed by RPF’s Communications Director, Charles Bekwele,
reads: “A few weeks ago, AIT showed many times a TV documentary,
produced by the Integrity Group, a known ally and agent of the Rivers
State governor, Nyesom Wike. The documentary was a direct attack on
the former Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. The
documentary was sponsored by Wike to rubbish Amaechi’s image,
tarnished his good name and wrongly but deviously portray Amaechi as
corrupt with the primary aim of stopping Amaechi to be part of
President Buhari’s Change Team. Facts were distorted, outright lies
were told in the documentary, just to paint Amaechi as corrupt. And
AIT gleefully showed this documentary, many times without talking to
Amaechi or making any attempt to hear Amaechi’s side.
“RPF
did its own 27-minute documentary, stating the facts of the matter
and AIT got this on September 25. The documentary clearly pointed out
the many lies of Wike against Amaechi, in the Wike-sponsored
documentary that was shown many times on AIT. The RPF documentary
also showed with facts, that Wike runs a government of deceit; and
his one-point agenda is to fight his predecessor and former
benefactor, Amaechi. Most revealing in the RPF documentary were
scenes from the public hearing of Wike’s ‘shambolic’ Commission of
Inquiry to investigate Amaechi that clearly shows the panel was set
up just to indict Amaechi of corruption.
“Without
notifying RPF, AIT took the documentary to Nyesom Wike. With the TV
documentary in his hand, Wike approached a Port Harcourt High Court
to stop AIT and a couple of other TV stations in Nigeria from showing
the documentary that exposed Wike’s government of fraud and deceit;
and his war against Rotimi Amaechi. This is the same AIT that showed
many times, Wike’s anti-Amaechi documentary in spite of the many
protestations by Amaechi, APC and many Nigerians.
“On
the other hand, we still can’t understand why NTA has refused to show
the documentary, despite the fact that it is not part of any court
processes instituted by Wike and has not been restrained by any
court. After making assurances to show the documentary and giving us
a time that it would be shown, NTA suspiciously stopped the showing
of the documentary a few minutes to the scheduled showing. Efforts to
get NTA top management staff to show the documentary or give us a
valid reason why a public broadcaster like NTA would stop it has been
abortive. Is NTA now being used by Nyesom Wike to kill free speech
and kill fair hearing? Why is NTA not showing it?
“Although
this cannot be confirmed now, we reliably gathered that money must
have exchanged hands involving some people to ensure that the
documentary is not shown on any TV station. A source also told us in
NTA that the strategy is to get a kangaroo court order restraining
NTA from showing it, so the plot now is for NTA to buy time for
Nyesom Wike.
“We
want to state clearly that this operation ‘kill the RPF documentary’
will not work as we are determined to let Nigerians know and see the
truth about Wike’s shenanigans in Rivers State and his vendetta war
against Rotimi Amaechi.
“AIT
is notorious for showing devious, defamatory television documentaries
against APC leaders in Nigeria. It would be recalled that before the
general elections, the same AIT showed documentaries replete with
lies and distorted facts against APC Presidential candidate,
Muhammadu Buhari and APC leader Bola Tinubu. These documentaries were
widely condemned by Nigerians”.
