You are Lucky I am Deputy Governor, I For Don Finish You By Now – Deputy Governor Threatens CRWatch Publisher The Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Efiok Cobham yesterday openly took a swipe on the Publisher of CrossRiverWatch, Mr. Agba Jalingo over a story the medium had published about the Deputy Governor last year threatining that if he was not a Deputy Governor, the journalist would now be long gone. The Deputy Governor bared his mind at the Ikorinim, Calabar home of Hon. Bassey Ewa, member representing Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency, who was celebrating his birthday. Mr. Cobham who arrived the venue at about 10pm quickly took his seat after exchanging pleasantries with other quests who had been around. Mr. Agba Jalingo approached him to greet him and after having a hand shake and on noticing that the person greeting him is the CrossRiverWatch Publisher, the following altercation ensued: Agba Jalingo: Your Excellency, Good evening Sir. Deputy Governor: How are you? Agba Jalingo: I am very fine Sir. Deputy Governor: So you are Agba Jalingo Agba Jalingo: Yes Sir, I am Agba Jalingo Deputy Governor: So you are the idiot that wrote the nonsense about me and my wife. That I asked my wife to kneel down. You are a very stupid idiot. You are a cheap criminal! You are a cheap blackmailer! You are just lucky that I am Deputy Governor, if not I for don finish you. You for don die by now. Agba Jalingo: Your Excellency I am very sorry about that Sir. Deputy Governor: (raising his voice) Go and sorry for yourself. You are a cheap criminal and a cheap blackmailer. Agba Jalingo: Oga I am not the one that wrote a story about you, it was CrossRiverWatch. Deputy Governor: Infact I have told you that you are lucky that I am the Deputy Governor, if not, you will not be here saying this by now. Then Honorable Paul Adah, former rep. and the Commissioner representing Cross River State in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC joined the Deputy Governor to harrass the journalist saying: Hon Paul Adah: “Yes, it is true, that is how you people write nonsense. You went and wrote that I am not qualified to be NDDC Commissioner because Obudu is not an oil producing area. Agba Jalingo: Sir, that was an opinion article written by Barrister Obono Obla not Agba Jalingo Sir. Hon Paul Adah: Who is Obono Obla? Who is he? Agba Jalingo then quickly exited the scence as the situation was getting tense. Otherwise, the celebrant had a good time enjoying with friends and colleagues who came to felicitate with him. It was a long list of guests who included the Secretary to Cross River State, Mr. Mike Aniah, Hon John Gaul, Eko Atu, Hon. Frank Etta, Chief Tony Undiandeye. Etc. Below is the last year report that infuriated the Deputy Governor: “Mr Efiok Cobham, the Cross River State deputy governor startled his household recently when he commanded his wife, Glory to kneel down and apologize to his protocol officer, Asikpo Okon for allegedly claiming that the protocol officer was in the habit of arranging girls for his boss. A reliable source said Efiok’s wife and Asikpo have been having running battles since 2011 when, an erstwhile Cross River Broadcasting Cooperation, CRBC correspondent who was covering the government house was said to be having a relationship with the deputy governor.”Oga was very angry with his wife when she confronted Asikpo over the relationship between him and the CRBC girl that is covering his office”. Our source said Asikpo who is a relative of Efiok had immediately gone to tell his boss his wife’s claim that he was now arranging the CRBC girl for him and the deputy governor angrily called on the wife and commanded her to kneel down and apologize to Asikpo or kiss the marriage goodbye “Madam felt bitterly humiliated but she had no choice than to kneel down and apologize instead of ending the marriage because she saw the anger and seriousness on oga’s face”. Glory who has since the second coming of Efiok as deputy governor, been keeping low profile even when her husband was made Acting Governor following his principal’s sojourn in the United States for four months, has been loudly complaining to her friends and relatives that she and her husband have not been having the best of times. According to sources, the woman has for some time been suspecting the husband of betraying their marital vows by frolicking with ladies and some of his female media aides during his frequent travels and she claims “That Asikpo who knew the difficult times she and Efiok were going through before 1999 and yet she stuck with the man could stab her in the back by arranging ladies for her husband”. Agba Jalingo while talking to this reporter over the incident said: “The truth is that we in CRWatch are bringing a new tradition to a regimented environment where our politicians feel like Demi gods. They are not used to been reported. My state is very media disadvantaged so to say. They do any thing and get away without a free press to hold them accountable for their actions, so I try to understand their predicament when some of them continue to harass us. “On the orders of the Deputy Governor, our Editor, Mr. Emmanuel Unah was arrested in a Gestapo manner from his home in the middle of the night by security personnel over this story and locked up at Diamond Hill, the police headquarters in Calabar over this story. It was the intervention of the Governor himself that secured his released. “We are no blackmailers, we are not criminals. We stand by everything we write on CrossRiverWatch as the truth to the best of our knowledge and were we have made mistakes, we openly wrote and apologized. We are citizen reporters who adhere to the highest ethical standards in the work we are doing. So if anyone thinks that we will be intimidated or harassed out of our work, the person is living an illusion. As a matter of fact the CRWatch radio just started. If you open the site you hear music now. We are thinking about the future, where our media establishment will be in the next five to ten years; when our state will be adequately reported like eslewhere in the country, that is what we are thinking about, not persons who will soon become history in the state.” follow NEWS on twitter @crossriverwatch
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 06:11:48 +0000
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