Press Release On the Global Concord and the Sale of Falsehood (Posted: August 24, 2010)

By Aniekan Umanah
Honourable Commissioner, Akwa Ibom State for Information & Social Re-Orientation

The attention of the State Government has been drawn to a libelous and utterly misleading story on pages one and three of an unregistered tabloid called Global Concord of Tuesday, August 17th, 2010.

Ordinarily, the publication should be ignored since it is easy to identify the paper as a gutter arsenal of desperate political gangsters whose stock-in-trade is the criminalization of the democratic space for selfish ethnic pursuits towards the next election in 2011.

With the scandalous headline �Paul Inyang: Secretary to the State Government, Information Commissioner interrogated�, the Global Concord, against all journalistic ethics and protocols, went ahead to cast aspersions on the hard earned reputation and integrity of two prominent members of the Akwa Ibom State Executive Council.

For the avoidance of doubt, let it be known that neither the Secretary to the State Government, Obong Umana Okon Umana nor the Commissioner for Information and Social Re-orientation, Mr. Aniekan Umanah was ever interrogated on any issue by any arm of the security agencies, talk less of the one referred to. What is rather shocking yet pitiful is the nadir to which the brains behind this publication are ready to descend at a period they should be mourning with relations of the dead who was yet to be buried at the time they went to press.

We hereby challenge the perpetrators of this falsehood and blatant misinformation to produce excerpts of the station entry of the purported interrogation for all to see.

Before that is done, if ever, the State Government wishes to advise members of the public to henceforth disregard such blatant falsehood from an unregistered tabloid whose stock-in-trade is to churn out lies, propaganda, deceit, libel and continuously fan the embers of disunity in the State. That Global Concord has no fixed operational address but an unknown location called �Ikpaisong Empire� is no guarantee that their cup will no sooner than later run over.

We warn the perpetrators of this falsehood to desist from it forth with as security agencies have been put on alert to fish them out for appropriate sanctions according to law.