Delta State media practitioners have been told to be ethical in their job in order to reposition the profession.
The state commissioner for information, Charles Aniagwu, expressed this on Wednesday in Asaba, while reacting to reports of falsehood trending in the social media deliberately intended to malign senior government officials in the state.
Aniagwu, referring to one of such reports told newsmen that the linking memos to the Permanent Secretary, Directorate of Government House and Protocol, was outright misrepresentation by the online reporter, and said that memos were public documents.
He said that, the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa was anchored on transparency, accountability and due process, and futher emphasised that no government operated verbally but with memos and other vital documents.
“We need to bring certain development to your notice. We have observed that there appears to be some hirelings, particularly in social media.”
“You will recall that sometime last year, I hinted to you that there are individuals who have become tools and are always willing to write and communicate issues that are, by every sense of imagination, at variance with the realities of the moment.
“At that time, if you would recall and even up till this moment, I did say that no malicious publication would deter the government from the goals that the governor had set for the administration, which at this point, is aimed at building a Stronger Delta.”
“They wouldn’t deter us from this line nor are we going to be distracted by such report.
“We have observed in the last three weeks or a month that these same elements have gone ahead to take advantage of the privilege that they have in the social media to begin to write about memos that were used for the purpose of governance in the last five years.
“Let me make it abundantly clear that the business of government and the business of private sector operator are usually run via memos because you must communicate (write) for the purpose of evidencing what you are asking the government to do, because the money has to be accounted for.
“We don’t run the government verbally,” Aniagwu said.
The commissioner, addressing issues on property tax, said that the policy was never a new one, adding that the state government was only strengthening it with a plan to embark on enumeration in urban areas of the state with a view to bringing more property into the tax system.
While on the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile of the state, Aniagwu said that the state government generated N7.8 billion in January, N5.3 billion in February, N6.04 billion in March, N3.9 billion in April, N3.5 billion in May and N4 billion in June, 2020.
The commissioner stated that every transaction of the administration of Governor Okowa was done transparently and not in secrecy.
Aniagwu in his address, also advised residents living on river banks or flood-prone areas to be at alert and relocate to upland as soon as the water level increased to avert disaster.
According to him, the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) had predicted that 18 local government areas of the state would witness flood as a result of the increase of water from River Niger.
On COVID-19, Aniagwu noted that the state government was doing well in the treatment of confirmed positive cases, adding that persons with mild symptoms of the virus were currently on isolation in their homes and receiving treatment
He advocated the need for residents of the state to continue to obey all protocols put in place by the government and NCDC so as to curtail the novel coronavirus pandemic.
