Nationally, everyone knows where Channels Television stands on political and electioneering issues. The station leans towards the failed APC and her Federal Government.
But I concede to Channels Television. It struggles from time to time to depict balance. However, on set, the station works to put on stream albeit surreptitiously, defence for the APC.
The Port Harcourt State Constituency Three Election has come and gone. The facts are now in the public domain. Almost all media houses are doing a post-mortem of that failed election. Channels Television had her own version on Wednesday, August 22.
To begin with, Channels Television refused to play visuals of Ojukaye Flag Amachree moving from Polling Station to Polling Station. They refused to play visuals of Corps members attacked with their card readers snatched and ballot boxes taken away. They also refused to play visuals of SARs Personnel moving desperately in the constituency to rig the polls. These visuals were sent to all Television Stations and were already used by AIT, the previous day.
Instead, Ajuri Ngelale was detailed to play the APC advocate. Anybody who watched today’s episode of Channels Television Sunrise Daily would be disappointed at Ajuri Ngelale’s partisanship. He struggled, though unsuccessfully to break the thought pattern of Emma Okah, Rivers State Commissioner of Information.
Ajuri Ngelale fought against the truth by trying to distort fact. He attempted to justify Ojukaye’s illegal disruption of the electoral process by mentioning 2015. He didn’t even get his facts right . Ajuri claimed that Mbu was on ground to conduct 2015 elections in Rivers State. By implication, Akin Fakorede must be allowed to superintend 2019.
First, Ajuri Ngelale was deliberately wrong. When Mbu had conflicts with the Former Rivers State Governor, Amaechi, the Police High Command tranferred him to the FCT Police Command. He was nowhere near Rivers State during the 2015 General election. On the other hand, the APC Federal Government, has refused to investigate Akin Fakorede, Rivers SARs Commander, despite his indictment by an INEC Panel that investigated the rerun elections in 2016.
Moreover, Ajuri Ngelale’s illogical argument does not hold water. If he claims that as it was in 2015, so it shall be in 2019. Ngelale suffered amnesia on 2016. He failed to mention how the APC lost woefully despite their efforts to use the rerun elections in Rivers State to secure 2/3 majority to impeach Governor Wike .
Ajuri Ngelale went further to assume on national television that whilst the APC controlled the Police/SARs, the Rivers State Government controlled INEC. This assumption made in bad faith is unfortunate. These are federal agencies. They are expected to be neutral in the course of the electioneering process. For the Rivers State Government, the focus is on projects delivery, which has led to the expansion of PDP’s support base.
Rivers is PDP. Therefore, PDP has never requested or gotten favours from INEC or the Police. The demand is simple, all Federal Agencies involved elections must play be the rule and create the right environment for votes to count. The blackmail by the likes of Ajuri Ngelale will not help the APC. If Former President Goodluck Jonathan had compromised INEC and Police in 2015, there was no way that Buhari would have emerged President.
The narrative they sent Ajuri Ngelale to promote is disheartening. That the Factional Chairman of Rivers APC was right to use thugs/SARS Operatives to compromise the electoral process.
We must always confront these media merchants of the APC. In 2015, we kept quiet and they sold lies to the people. Presenting a failure as a Presidential Material. Today, the failure is glaring. There is no single area where Buhari has succeeded, aside trekking for 800metres.
In struggling to defend the indefensible, Ajuri should be hardworking enough to do basic research. Thereafter, he should attempt to hide his biases.
By the instrumentality of the APC Federal Government through the APC/SARs collaboration, an election was disrupted. It is uncharitable for a television presenter to allow his political leaning to determine his action. It is even more depressing that Ngelale hails from Rivers State.
