Government House, Owerri, almost turned to a battle ground as a Media Aide to the Governor, was in a mood to turn the complex to wrestling ring.
The newly appointed media aide to the Governor (names withheld) not only showcased silly temperament but also exhibited his pugilist qualities when he attacked a journalist over money made available to newsmen by the State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
Trouble started when the money Owelle promised the journalists were made available after a media chat in Government House. Whatever almost resulted to fisticuffs was the manner the media aide entrusted with the money “shared” it to journalists present.
Aggrieved that they were not included in the sharing formula of the amount provided, some affected journalists confronted the media aide who in retaliation “hooked” one of protesting journalists and threatened to remove his teeth in the process. The intervention of passers-by including other journalists saved the brawl.
Governor Okorocha after briefing newsmen in the state of affairs in Imo decided to end the event with a “handshake”. In the process, the Governor noted that since he may not meet them again before the coming yuletide, he opted to extend Christmas package in monetary form and the media aide joined the Governor to bring the money running into millions.
The media aide incurred the wrath of some journalists when he employed “divide and rule” tactics by favouring some and denying others the million naira “Christmas handshake”. It was in the process of complaining that the media aide threw caution to the winds and “hooked” one of the embattled journalists.
The grouse of the aggrieved journalists was that the Governor extended the Christmas “handshake” to all journalists especially those present during the briefing, and not the few groups and individuals the media aide extended the money to.
What however infuriated the short-changed journalists was that the media aide allegedly kept back a reasonable chunk of the money after sharing to his choice journalists.
“What pained us was that the Governor’s Media aide ignored us and decided to share the money without recourse to his “Oga’s” statement that it is for all journalists present. Besides, he kept back a large chunk of the money after sharing to few persons. The worst was that he hooked and threatened to manhandle one of us Hamilton Onuchukwu, who writes for one of the Owerri-based newspapers for attempting to know why he marginalized us. Worse still, he kept a heavy chunk of the money and gave us peanuts. Is that how he is going to work with journalists?”, one of the aggrieved journalists lamented.
