The arrest and detention of APC youth leader, Mr James Nwanjoku Okugo, following his alleged publication on the social media that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and one of his aides, Flavour Eze, contacted COVID-19 with the intention to spread the contagious disease in Enugu.
Subsequently, the IGP Monitoring Team, Friday arrested him and this has led to attack and counter attacks among the APC chieftains in the state.
While the state chairman, Ben Nwoye, flayed the minister for initiating the arrest instead of seeking legal redress, others loyal to Onyeama, condemned Okugo for his claims and Nwoye, who spoke in his defence.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Princess Adaku Ogbu-Aguocha, however condemned the continuous attacks on the minister by a faction of the party in Enugu state led by Dr Ben Nwoye.
Ogbu-Aguocha, who was the Enugu East senatorial candidate of APC in the 2019 general elections, stated this while reacting to media report on the crisis, said the minister had no hand in the arrest.
Ogbu-Aguocha in a statement, Sunday said that the arrest of Mr Nwanjoku was a result of a petition by party chieftain to the Inspector General of Police and has nothing to do with the honorable minister of foreign affairs.
She said, “although the minister has come under extreme provocation from diabolical and divisive forces within the party in the state; as the perfect gentleman he is, the minister has always shrugged off all the numerous slurs on his character with grace.”
The APC chieftain argued that at some point all men of truth and goodwill should admit that “enough is enough” when it comes to the scourge of fake news in our polity.
“People cannot under the cover of social media, maliciously concoct and spread fictitious stories that have no bases and publish same to malign the image and integrity of our leaders, then turn around to cry “intimidation”.
“So Mr Nwanjoku and his sponsors should face the consequences of their fake news peddling and leave Mr. Onyeama out of it.
“Nigerians know that the honorable minister is a man of outstanding character and integrity and cannot be distracted from the excellent service he has been providing for the nation and Mr President.”
Another Enugu APC chieftain Ambassador Ginika Tor, in a reaction to this development stated that, Dr Ben Nwoye was not only using Nwanjoku Okugo to scandalize the honorable minister as a Convid-19 positive person but went further to allege that the minister intentionally visited Enugu state to spread the virus as well as infect innocent citizens. “What a shameful and wicked allegation!”
“This is the height of irresponsibility on the part of those that hatched the news.
“Definitely we cannot continue to look the other way while our leader’s name and reputation is constantly tarnished. Mr James Nwanjoku Okugo should be made to face the music and answer for his crimes of bandying fake news in order to ridicule the reputation of a high ranking federal government official because as an adult he must have weighed the consequences of his actions before embarking on this journey.
“This factional politics by Ben Nwoye and his gang has been taken too far and must be stopped,” she said.
