| 31 October 2018 | Ukorebi Esien
The publisher of Voplink Media and a member of the Online Media Practioners Association of Nigeria OMPAN, Cross River State Chapter, Mr. Mathew Okache has threatened to slam the All Progressive Congress, APC in Cross River State with a law suit for including his name as a member of the recently published APC statewide Online Media Campaign team set up by the party without his consent.
Okache, who made this known in a statement made available to TDN disassociated himself from the said media team whose post went viral on Facebook Tuesday evening.
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| Mathew Okache, Publisher of Voplink Media |
Okache argued that as a publisher of a news platform, he has decided not to be partisan, but he is only saddled with the core responsibility of covering political events for any party without being loyal to any of them.
In his words: "As an online publisher/editor, I am only saddled with the core responsibility of covering political events without any form of displaying loyalty to any party in Cross River State be it PDP, APC, PPP, SDP, APGA to mention a few."
The publisher of Voplink Media further threatened that as a matter of urgency his name should be removed from the said media list or he will be forced to ensure the law takes its due cause.
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| Published list of APC state wide Online media campaign team |
"I hereby appealed to whosoever included my name in the list of APC New Media member to withdraw it with immediate effect or face the wrath of the law."
Earlier in his statement, I Okache had said he was disassociating himself from the said list as he was not consulted before, his name was shortlisted.
The statement reads in full:
"DISCLAIMER
My attention has been drawn to a published list of names released by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Cross River State chapter as part of the 'New Media' team.
As a law abiding citizen, I hereby used this platform to disassociate myself from the aforementioned published names by the party.
As an online published/editor, I am only saddled with the core responsibility of covering political events without any form of displaying loyalty to any party in Cross River State be it PDP, APC, PPP, SDP, APGA to mention a few.
I hereby appealed to whosoever included my name in the list of APC New Media member to withdraw it with immediate effect or face the wrath of the law.
My name is Matthew Okache, Publisher/Editor of Voplink Media".
On the other hand, when contacted, a close member of Sen Owan's campaign team and a member of the newly formed statewide media team by the party disclosed to TDN that Mr. Mathew Okache was contacted and he accepted to be part of the media team. According to the source "when we contacted him a day before the list was made public, he confirmed his readiness to be part of the team. He even said that he was ready to begin work even before we called him".
In a related development, some members of the state wide online Media Team for APC Cross River State as published on Tuesday have taken turns to disassociate themselves with from the list stating lack of pre-consultation before their names were shortlisted as reasons for backing out.
The likes of Mr. George Odok, a senior correspondent with the News Agency of Nigeria who found his name on the list was among the first who raised alarm disassociating himself from the said media team. Another was One Victor Egba who is said to be a personal social media writer to Owan Enoh. Egba Tuesday night raised a disclaimer disassociating himself from the team but was faced with several threats by some members of the Owan Enoh's media team. Which alledgely led to him upturning his earlier descision to reject the appointment.
A close source disclosed that "Ogar might have called him to order".
Ukorebi Esien blogs for TDN where he tells the Nigerian story, one article at a time.
