Re: ASUU officials in street brawl with Socialist Party

In the report, the journalist alleged that “leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Cross River State who were on public protest on the streets of Calabar yesterday engaged officials of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) in a street brawl”. Nothing like this occurred at the rally.As a matter of fact […]

In the report, the journalist alleged that “leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Cross River State who were on public protest on the streets of Calabar yesterday engaged officials of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) in a street brawl”. Nothing like this occurred at the rally.
As a matter of fact the members of the Democratic Socialist Movement, the organization that initiated the Socialist Party of Nigeria, are in the leadership of the Joint Action Front that initiated the ongoing nationwide mass rallies to save education. The members of SPN were much more active at the August 13 protest march in Lagos where the national action to mobilize mass support for ASUU demands and save education campaign was flagged off. The mass rally continued in Calabar with DSM comrades in attendance with two banners, one for the SPN and another for Education Rights Campaign (ERC). Thousands of ERC leaflets were received from the DSM comrades in the rally including ASUU officials for mass circulation.
However, the major problem by some right-wing elements on the demo was with the SPN banner and the leaflets which had the manifesto of the party. This led to unfortunate arguments and an attempt to arrest DSM comrades, but not the physical fight that the report claims took place.
Mr Charles threw all journalism ethics to the winds when he reported that “the SPN were also on similar mission of protest but both parties threw caution to the wind and engaged in a free-for-all fight right opposite Governor Liyel Imoke’s office in Calabar”. This is nothing but a fabrication. The procession passed through the front of the governor’s office without such an incident. It was equally false that “trouble started when each of the parties wanted to be the leader of the protest into the governor’s office”. There was no attempt to enter governor’s office let alone battle over the leadership of the protest as this journalist reported as the leader of JAF was in the clear leadership of the protests.
It is equally grave, misleading and highly fraudulent to report that “when SPN leaders saw that ASUU officials, Non Academic Staff of Universities, National Union of Teachers, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities in collaboration with Joint Action Front (JAF) were having the upper hand, they ordered their boys to shove the ASUU officials aside and take over the protest”. The SPN comrades and members of SPN were part of the rally and the ERC banner which they also displayed was at the forefront of the rally, without any opposition whatsoever. To show that this media report was fallacious, only two SPN/ERC/DSM members participated at the rally. Where then did the reporter get the numbers he brandished when he stated that SPN leaders ordered their boys to shove ASUU officials aside in order to take over the protest?
Given the magnitude of fabrication of this report by Eyo Charles, it is not out of place to conclude that this report was sponsored. What the sponsors of the report is hiding is the fact that the SPN comrades was subjected to harassment by some right-wing elements at the rally, working hand-in-hand with operatives of the State Security Services to arrest the SPN comrades and hand them over to security operatives.
In short, this is a self-contradictory report that is bereft of ideal journalism expected of Daily Trust and its staff! We therefore call for immediate retraction by the Daily Trust newspapers and published apology.

Onwunalu Alexander, Protem Publicity Secretary, Rivers State Chapter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria.