Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, on Tuesday night took a swipe at PREMIUM TIMES after the paper reported her call on the Nigerian. authorities to “take in” and “restrain” a former. aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, for allegedly spreading hate in articles he published recently.
She accused the paper of hysterical and sensationalised reporting. Mrs. Ezekwesili had taken to twitter to react to Mr. Fani-Kayode’s. series of controversial articles which touched on Nigeria’s turbulent history and what he considered the place of the Igbo in it all. The former minister had, among others, published the three tweets below:
“If we had a functioning nation state with credible institutions they should by today take him (Femi Fani-Kayode) in to restrain events”
“The relevant agency of the FG must take in.Femi Fani-Kayode and restrain him from making further hateful speeches against the Igbos”
“Appropriate agency of State must call in Fani.Kayode now & demand he stops forthwith any more HATEFUL SPEECHES that EXPRESSLY TARGET Igbos.”
In the judgment of PREMIUM TIMES editors and reporters, Mrs Ezekwesili’s call for federal authorities to “call in”, “take in” and “restrain” Mr. Fani-Kayode amounted to a call for his arrest.
The paper therefore published a story.headlined, “ Ezekwesili wants Fani-Kayode arrested; Fani Kayode draws battle-line” . But moments after the story was published, the former minister again took to twitter to disparage this newspaper, accusing it of sensationalism and of not practising real journalism.
In what appeared an attempt to retract her.earlier call for the arrest of Mr. Fani-Kayode, Mrs. Ezekwesili curiously claimed that her call for the former aviation minister to be “called in”, “taken in” and “restrained” by federal agencies did not amount to a call for his arrest.
“You like a sensational headline right, so you created one for yourselves,” she tweeted at PREMIUM TIMES. The former minister then added, “If you practised real journalism you would have known that requesting that a person making a “hateful speech be taken in by relevant agencies of the state to restrain them does not mean ‘arrest’”. This paper responded by explaining to her that her choice of words definitely communicated a call for arrest and that. it was unfair of her “to cast aspersion on our reporting when all we did was report your comment, your words.” She still was unimpressed, insisting that her comments were misinterpreted and sensationalised.
PREMIUM TIMES in turn urged her to stand by her words and admit that she communicated. “arrest” in her tweets.
http://premiumtimesng.com/news/142721-ezekwesili-attacks-premium-times-over-report-on-call-for-fani-kayodes-arrest.html
No comments:
Post a Comment