…Permanently shuts door on Arise News Presidential Town Hall Meeting
All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate for the 2023 election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, travelled to United Kingdom early today (Saturday) ahead of his scheduled event for Monday, December 5, 2022 at Chatham House in London where he will speak on Security, Economy and Foreign Policy.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council disclosed this earlier today in a statement signed by its Director, Media & Publicity Bayo Onanuga.
The trip effectively ends any possibility of Tinubu attending Sunday’s Arise News Presidential Town Hall Meeting.
APC PCC in its statement berated Arise News Television, accusing it of bias and blackmail and vowing that Tinubu would never attend any of its Presidential Town Hall Meetings.
Part of the statement reads: “We find it shocking and downright anomalous that Arise News continues to broadcast the participation of All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in its Presidential Town Hall meeting scheduled to hold on 4 December, 2022 despite our earlier statement that our candidate will not be available.
“We noticed that Arise News has also been running a campaign on the so-called constitutional duty of the presidential candidates to participate in its debate by dubiously citing section 22 of the Constitution of Nigeria on the obligation of the Mass Media.
“While it is trite that the media has clear constitutional duty to hold public office holders accountable to the citizens and its role as the watchdog of the society, there is no part of the Constitution and the section 22 that says a presidential candidate of any political party and least of all, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu must participate in Arise News Town Hall event or any media organised event at all.
“The same Constitution grants all citizens of Nigeria, including Asiwaju Tinubu, the right and freedom of choice and association. The APC Presidential candidate has a right to decide where he goes and events to participate in as he seeks the mandate of Nigerians to be elected as the next President of our country.
“We want to make it abundantly clear again that Asiwaju Tinubu will not participate and will not attend the Arise News Town Hall meeting slated for Sunday, 4 December, 2022 and any other ones it may plan before the February 2023 presidential election. We want to equally stress that Arise News has consistently shown a pattern of bias against Asiwaju Tinubu and we don’t consider the medium as credible and impartial.”
Credit: NEWS EXPRESS.
