The Cross River State Government has demanded an immediate retraction and unreserved apology from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate over a press release alleging that Governor Bassey Edet Otu directed the Paramount Ruler of Calabar South not to receive the candidate.
The Government described the report as false, malicious and intended to tarnish the image of the Governor and his administration.
Addressing journalists in Calabar, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Pastor Ekpenyong Cobham, said Government's attention was drawn to the publication credited to Sir Arthur Jarvis Archibong, a factional governorship candidate of the PDP.
According to the Commissioner, when Sir Jarvis's attention was drawn to the dangerous publication, he personally saw a reply from Jarvis on the phone of the Paramount Ruler of Calabar South, apologizing and stating that he had directed that the press release be taken down.
"If that news was correct by any means, why would there be a need to apologize and why would there be a need to take it down? The very fact that he instructed that it be taken down speaks for itself," the Commissioner said.
He noted that it is honourable for anyone who understands the dangers of misinformation and disinformation to retract such a story with an apology.
The Commissioner said the integrity and personage of the Governor and the administration is being tainted by what he called a deliberate spin to create sympathy and create the impression that vote-canvassing by a couple of canvassers was on the instruction of the Governor ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) congress.
"There is no basis for the Government of Cross River State to feel threatened by whatever sludge funds that have been remitted out of their personal endeavours. What we are seeing now is that for fear of a proper empowerment, people are now becoming property agents, all to go for sludge funds without a cause," he stated.
He challenged investigative journalists to go beyond hearsay and interview the Paramount Ruler of Calabar South to get the true position of the matter.
The State Government, he said, has in its possession an apology from Sir Arthur Jarvis and his entire media group putting the facts straight.
"It is an absolute insult to the character, name and personality of His Excellency for an issue which is a figment of the imagination," he stressed.
The Government therefore gave 48 hours for the press release to be retracted with a formal and unreserved apology to be published in national dailies, failure of which the Attorney-General of Cross River State may be compelled to institute legal action accordingly.
By Nakanda Iyadim and Kingsley Agim
