KIDNAPPED NUJ MEMBERS: AKPABIO PLEASE SHOW CONCERN

Dear Editor,

KIDNAPPED NUJ MEMBERS: AKPABIO PLEASE SHOW CONCERN

It is only a stone-hearted after reading the entire unfortunate scenario regarding kidnap saga of the NUJ members that would not show some concern. There are so many nonchalant attitude displayed by Governor Akpabio’s government regarding this matter.

The government has been accused of so many unimaginable exhibition of ‘I don’t care’ attitude: In every Nigerian societal culture, it is a norm that when a visitor leaves your home, you must show concern that he gets back home safely. This becomes the singular reason Akpabio government supposed to show some sympathy for what befell his NUJ visitors, on the way back to their stations. Akpabio is being accused of unusual gifts to the journalists and this has become a national discourse. It was not funny that while Uyo is nearer Umuahia, it took the farther Rivers Governor Amaechi in Port Harcourt to cater for the welfare of Akwa Ibom’s guests by chartering plane that conveyed the released journalists back to Lagos.

The fact that Wahab Oba confessed in the Leadership newspaper of 19/7/10 that the kidnappers warned them not to act any funny because they (journalists) were monitored and tab kept on their movement right from Uyo, was enough reason for Uyo end to act in a way to cancel that impression, but up till today they acted otherwise. Some ‘belly-aching’ persons had insinuated that as far as the cash taken from the journalists was concerned, it was "Uyo giveth and Uyo taketh".

Though it would be an after-thought, one still believes that Akpabio and his government can still make amend of the public opinion against them which seem to have gathered momentum. Anything short of this would go to buttress the belief of many that since the NUJ could not agree to his call that those ‘mushroom’ newspapers established by oppositions to checkmate him in Uyo must be sanctioned therefore what befell the journalists on their way back was good for them.

Yinka Aderemi, Fasheun Close, Ibadan, Oyo State.