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By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
The Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union Journalists (NUJ), Bayelsa State Council, has passed a vote of no confidence on Mr. Daniel Alabra, the chief press secretary to Bayelsa State governor, Senator Douye Diri.
The vote of no confidence was passed in Alabrah recently during the chapel’s monthly Congress meeting, with the threat to boycott government activities if the press secretary doesn’t amend his ways.
The FCC congress expressed great displeasure over the handling of Governor Diri’s media coverage by Mr. Alabrah since his confirmation as substantive chief press secretary.
In a resolution signed by the vice chairman of the chapel, Pauline Oyibe and over 13 members, the chapel stated that the chief press secretary’s determination to continuously deny correspondents access to state government programmes and Government House and, instead, chose to be feeding correspondents with press releases which hamper our constitutional responsibilities as journalists will no longer be tolerated.
According to a statement issued at the end of the congress, the “Chapel observed that the press secretary has been treating the chapel with utmost disrespect and disdain as shown by his attitude towards the chapel hence the vote of no confidence in Mr. Daniel Alabrah as chief press secretary to the governor.
“For instance, during the visit of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on February 19, 2022, the press secretary, in his usual manner, left out national correspondents in the arrangement to visit Angiama, Southern Ijaw Local Government for the coverage of the ground breaking ceremony of the bridge.
“Since the inauguration of the Senator Douye Diri ‘Prosperity Government’ on February 14, 2020, correspondents have been treated to press releases with no possibility of attending government programmes to get first hand information.
“Within the past two years, some correspondents have also been roundly criticized and reported to their head offices for writing the press releases their own way. We have also done our best to engage government on the need to ensure we cover government programmes to get first hand information to no avail.
“It is against this backdrop that the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel notes the following reasons why we are, henceforth, saying no to government press releases until government sees reason with us as the Fourth Estate of the Realm with a constitutional duty to report first hand, the activities of government.
“We don’t want to believe that the governor, Senator Douye Diri is responsible for the shabby and poor attitude of the press secretary as we call on the governor to rejig, reposition and rejuvenate his media team.
“The congress condemned the attitude of the press secretary, who will not allow correspondents access to government programmes but rather chose to send press releases after such programmes.
