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Bishop Emmah Isong
By Akpan David, Calabar
The National Publicity Secretary of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Emmah Gospel Isong has dissuaded Nigerians against believing that the governor of Cross River State, Prince Bassey Otu is out to witchhunt his predecessor, Prof Ben Ayade or any other persons.
Few days ago, there were some media reports that reportedly quoted the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Otu, Emmanuel Ogbeche of alleging that Ayade’s government had completely ran down the State and was issuing sensitive state approvals and directives via WhatsApp.
In an interview with journalists in Calabar, Bishop Isong said, “The state governor Prince Bassey Otu is not here to witch hunt anybody but to lay a new foundation and like I prayed at the Solemn Assembly in Calabar recently, that God should heal our land. To me the new Chief Press Secretary just had a parley with his own constituency and I can vouch that he is competent to pilot the affairs of that office effectively and certainly journalists will enjoy his tenure”.
He said, “WhatsApp or no WhatsApp nobody has produced the WhatsApp approvals and there is no WhatsApp message that can tantamount to approvals.
“As far as I know there was a. Bureau that approved Budgets and there was an Accountant General and due processes followed in financial transactions.
“I was the Chairman of the State Anti Tax Agency and we handed reports to the transition committee and there was no such issue like approvals on WhatsApp. People are just struggling to create amenity between the former governor and the new governor. They want to create an imaginary conflict . The Vehicle is stucked in the mud and while we are trying to push it to jumpstart, nobody should take us backwards”.
Bishop Isong who is the General Overseer of the Christian Central Chapel International (CCCI), however agreed that the terrain of the last political dispensation was very complicated.
He explained that as a result government functionaries were largely misunderstood even though the state was lucky to retain power under the APC.
“it does not however mean that there were no infractions on some past policies. As far as I know no person or government is perfect,” he noted.
