TUE, AUGUST 21 2018-theG&BJournal-Pat Utomi, one of the All Progressives Party (APC) front runners in the race for the governorship of Delta State has denied reports in the media of his admission that his party, the APC has derailed from its vision.
Yesterday, the Daily Post, an online media platform published a report that completely deviated from Utomi’s description of how the APC was founded claiming that Utomi said that the ruling party ‘’has disappointed many by failing to live up to expectations.’’
‘’I never spoke to any journalist in Abuja, the body of the story does not reflect my views in any way and the headline caption of the story is an imagination of the writer,’’ Utomi said adding that as a founding father of the party he has always strived hard to uplift the ideals of the party.
‘’At the core of the story is the need for the writer’s brain to reflect information that harmonizes with his existing views,’’ said Godwin Anaughe, Utomi’s aide. ‘’And I think the writer was in a rush to get our campaign team to notice him, and I can’t say I blame,’’ he added.
The DAILY POST presented a report that many thought is vindictive. ‘’It shows how fast most Nigerian journalists can resort to ‘’arm-chair’’ journalism to gain attention and at the same time do some damage to the credibility of an honest man’’ said one media watcher in Lagos who was at Utomi’s inauguration of a high-powered Think-Tank in Lagos last week.
Utomi at the inauguration and when asked by a reporter recalled how the APC was founded and nurtured eventually into a ruling party. He spoke in the presence of a collection of high profile personalities at the event including renowned economist and Central Banker, Victor Odozi and Engineer Moses Kragha, the chairman of the inaugurated Think-Tank.
The founding of the APC, Utomi recalled, began with the concerned professionals who formed a political party and took over the ADC. The process gained momentum when Chief Anthony Enahoro began a process of uniting the ‘progressives’ who hold strong positives views of Nigeria’s political future. The likes of Olu Falae and host of other notable technocrats including Utomi worked tirelessly together to move the idea forward. The idea stalled for a while but Asiwaju Bola Tinubu prodded Utomi to resurrect it and that was when they made contact with President Muhammadu Buhari and in the end APC was born.
