General News of Monday, 7 November 2016

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

‘We don’t do gutter journalism’ - Dele Momodu fires Daily Statesman

Chief Dele Momodu play videoChief Dele Momodu

The publisher of Ovation Magazine International, Chief Dele Momodu has dispelled a report by Daily Statesman – stating that he is planning to orchestrate an attack on the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

In a rejoinder sent to GhanaWeb, the Nigerian media mogul stated that there’s no iota of truth in the story.

He explains further that the campaign of calumny against him is sponsored by politicians who are worried stiff about the wide influence of his media platforms.

According to the Daily Statesman – a newspaper believed to be owned by Nana Akufo-addo, the report alleges that Dele Momodu is planning to use Nigerian students in Ghana to perpetrate the “attack”.

The report also stated that the publisher is working with the National Security in conjunction with Nigerian students to convince Ghanaians not to vote for Akufo-Addo sighting the current state of Nigeria after they changed the leadership.

But the report is not clear on what form the said attack will take, neither did it state explicitly in what capacity the National Security will be collaborating with Nigerian students to convince Ghanaians not to vote for Akufo-Addo.

But in the rejoinder sent to GhanaWeb, Chief Dele Momodu denied any of the accusations in the report.

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We note the campaign of calumny against Ovation International and its publisher Chief Dele Momodu by some politicians who are worried stiff about the wide influence of our media platforms. They need not panic. We are against any candidate. We are for the peace and progress of Africa.

Nowhere did we talk about NPP not to talk of planning evil against our big brother Nana Akufo-Addo. Ours is a joyful and joyous crowd who want PEACE during and after the elections. Ghana has been a worthy example to other Africans and this is worth celebrating. Many Ghanaian youths are very happy and proud of the way Ovation International is promoting the positive developments in Ghana like we have been doing since the time of Rawlings, Kufour and Atta-Mills, and now Mahama…

This level of intolerance against a media organization seeking to project the beauty of Africa to the world is unprecedented. Our offence is that we are exposing the humongous infrastructure projects of President Mahama to the vibrant youths of Ghana and they are happy Ghana is investing in a solid future for them. It would be shocking if we are hated for displaying beautiful pictures of Ghana.

The story of planning an attack against Nana is totally spurious and fictional. We are a lifestyle magazine and we do not engage in gutter journalism. It is even more dastardly to suggest that Ovation would attack President Muhammadu Buhari, a leader we supported with everything. For the avoidance of doubts, the situation that made us support Buhari is lacking in Ghana.

President Mahama has done incredibly well in the area of power, education, healthcare, agriculture, water, roads, sports, markets, airports, security and these projects are very obvious to objective minds. Of course, it is normal for some people to ignore and discredit such great projects but our duty is to place those facts in public domain. And that we have done creditably well to the delight of non-partisans.

May God continue to bless the Republic of Ghana.