The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike has clarified feedback he made about Channels Tv’s anchor, Seun Okinbaloye.
Politics Nigeria studies that Wike had stated he would have “damaged his TV display screen and shot” Okinbaloye, over his feedback {that a} one-party system would destroy democracy in Nigeria.
The assertion has attracted widespread condemnation, with Amnesty Worldwide describing the minister’s remarks as “reckless and violent”.
However in an announcement signed by his media aide, Lere Olayinka, Wike has defined that he didn’t imply it actually.
The assertion launched by Olayinka on Saturday learn: “The minister by no means meant that he’ll shoot Seun Okinbaloye. They even spoke on telephone at the moment, and he (Okinbaloye) understood what the minister meant.
“What the minister meant, which he made clear in the course of the media chat was that he was offended seeing Okinbaloye, whom he maintain in excessive esteem as a journalist, descending into the political area by talking as an social gathering, as an alternative of an interviewer.
“The assertion made by the minister was in hyperbolic context, which was clearly with out intent. It was primarily utilizing exaggeration to make some extent.
“Even after the minister made the clarifications on the stay tv program, which had Chamberlain Uzor, Head of Channels Tv’s Abuja Workplace as a part of the interviewers, all of the journalists who had been interviewing him simply laughed.
“Due to this fact, after the minister detailed explanations of what he meant, together with saying on the stay tv program that he didn’t imply that he’ll carry gun and shoot the tv anchor, it is going to turn out to be a transparent hatchet job for any particular person or group to select the assertion out of context and make any difficulty out of it.
“The general public is subsequently urged to discontenance using the remark as instrument of blackmail and propaganda by these whose intent is to misrepresent info for his or her political positive factors.”