Governor Rochas Okorocha 2013 budget proposal to the Imo State House of Assembly has left in its trail a bitter war between the information and strategy Commissioner, Chinedu Offor and SA, (media) to the Speaker, Ikenna Samuelson.
Imo Trumpeta learnt that the genesis of the crisis was when Offor went on air to announce the invitation of all practicing Journalists in the state without deeming it appropriate to consult with the Speaker’s Aide on media.
This was said to have infuriated the Speaker’s aide who wondered why the Information Commissioner had to summon Journalists to the House without adequate consultation.
The bubble burst open when reports filtered in that the state Government doled out huge sums of money to take care of cost of airing the event live on national television network and coverage of the event by local Journalists in the state.
According to a source, a meager N100, 000 was only given to the Speaker’s Aide by the SA media, Ebere Uzoukwa, being coverage money meant for Journalists covering the Imo State House of Assembly in the state who covered the event. The intensity of the face-off, however, heightened when allegations were leveled against the Speaker’s aide to have collected more than N100,000 for Journalists. In his reaction, Samuelson fingered Offor to be the architect of the allegations, wondering how the Hon. Commissioner for Information should resort to blackmail his humble self.
“Please the Commissioner should stop blackmailing me. He invited all the Journalists, so he should take responsibility in paying them, else I will alert both his Excellency and the Rt. Hon Speaker” Samuelson submitted. When Offor was contacted for comments, he was unavailable, but a source in the Ministry said the Commissioner never collected a dime from what was budgeted for Journalists who covered the budget presentation.
In his response, SA (print media) to the Governor, Ebere Uzoukwa admitted that the Speaker’s Aide collected N100,000 as “PR money” for only Imo House of Correspondents, stating that at no time was a huge amount of money was voted for the event. He described the report as the figment of imagination of those who are peddling such non-existent story.
