By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-Chief)
The Ben Etiaba Campaign Council (BECC) has commended the management of Arise News TV for reversing itself by organizing a second phase of the debate for the governorship candidates of other political parties in the Anambra election, including Chief Ben Etiaba of Action Alliance (AA), who were initially excluded from participating in the Monday exercise.
NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER ONLINE, on Sunday night, broke the news of the outrage and media protest especially by the Ben Etiaba Campaign Council which queried the criteria used by Arise News TV to select only the candidates of APGA, PDP, and APC, for the governorship debate on Monday.
The Etiaba Campaign Group described the exclusion of other guber candidates from the debate as an affront on the people of Anambra state and on democracy itself, insisting that Arise News TV should take urgent steps to right such perceived wrong in the interest of equity, fairness, and respect for the Democratic choices of the Anambra people.
Following this vigorous media pressure, the management of Arise News TV, organizers of the Anambra guber debate, same Monday evening, decided to set up a second debate to take place immediately, before the Saturday, November 6 governorship poll.
The commendation of Arise News TV on this decision was contained in a statement last night (Monday, November 1, 2021) by Ifeanacho Atusiubah, the Director, Media, and Communications of the Ben Etiaba Campaign Council (BECC). The statement reads thus:
"Following our earlier Press Release of today, the first day of November 2021 titled ‘Arise News Debate, Matters Arising’, in protest that our brightest and best gubernatorial options were left out of Arise News governorship debate, the Ben Etiaba Campaign Council (BECC) wants to acknowledge and appreciate the prompt action taken by Arise News, to set up a second debate most especially as the earlier debate sadly turned out to be a complete fiasco and in fact an embarrassing debacle for the image of our dear State.
"Our campaign Organization will always call out any wrongs against the great people of the ‘light of the Nation’ that we identify. We’ll however also ensure that corrective actions when taken, are promptly acknowledged.
"Kudos to Arise News for the opportunity to show the world that Anambra State is not devoid of great leaders and that we can indeed offer the people more credible options on Saturday 6th November 2021.
"Anambra deserves a selfless, and humble altruistic servant of the people as our next Governor". NNL.
