* Governor Umahi of Ebonyi * Source : Eagle Online
At last embattled Governor OF Ebony State David Umahi has finally bowed to pressure by apologising for banning two journalists from entering Ebonyi State Government House and other government facilities in the state for life.
Umahi, who apologised in a broadcast yesterday, described the journalists as “partners” and pleaded with them to help him in building the state.
“In my earlier speeches, I had said that the unfortunate incident with the press was not intentional but I think we are all here to build the state and so, I am asking everybody to disregard whatever that happened and see press as our partners in progress and let us work together.
“We advise them to please crosscheck information because I hear more than you hear. There are certain write-ups that people are sad about and that is why I said please, let everybody come together. As a father, you beat a child with one hand, you bring him back with the other hand.
“I believe strongly that if anybody intentionally wants to pull you down, he can’t pull you down standing. He will also go down with you and he may even rise ahead of you and the single way to succeed in life is to be happy with success.
“So, I want to invite the press on partnership and also ask them to please help us to build the state. Nobody said you should not report the truth, but don’t report false against us because we know our people as a state is peculiar, little thing will trigger off a lot of tension,” Umahi said in his broadcast.
AbelNews recalled that the Governor had banned The Sun Newspapers Correspondent Chijioke Agwu, and that of Vanguard Newspapers , Peter Okutu ‘for life’ over their reportage of events in the state which the governor was not comfortable with .
