The 12-time best TV Station in Nigeria - Channels TV has been accused of partisan reportage and spreading Fake News by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole.

 

Oshiomhole made the allegations while questioning what he describes as the unfair coverage of Channels TV and other newspapers on the face-off between the leadership of the All Progressives Congress and the principal officers of the National Assembly culminating in the besiegement of the National Assembly complex by operatives of the Directorate of State Security, DSS.

 

Speaking at a public gathering recently, Oshiomhole accused the private television station of being partisan and unprofessional in its recent reportorial about political events in the country. He explained how the media platform alleged he had a private meeting with senators of the All Progressives Congress at the Aso Drive, Abuja over a planned impeachment of the embattled Senate President Bukola Saraki while he was actually in London, United Kingdom.

 

"Yesterday morning, I travelled to the UK and I was in London and I saw some stories to the effect that I was attending or even presiding over a meeting at Aso Drive. I thought that this was the handiwork of those social media warriors. You know in the current world information order, one man can post one million stories depending on how active he is. And those who have murdered sleep politically have chosen to hire hundreds of social media young people to post all kinds of untruth and create confusion. Fake News is beginning to become the order of the day in many respects. But I got a little worried when otherwise reputable media houses also joined on the basis of unverified facts carried away by those who have vested interests to report without minimum efforts to establish the facts” he said

 

“This morning, there was a newscaster or a news headline on Channels TV alleging that I presided over a meeting with senators last night. I will not ask them to retract the news. The way to discredit any media is to put the truth out because the power of the pen is as potent according to the fact it conveys; when that power is recklessly misused, it simply loses value. Fortunately, I wasn't around last night and therefore, I couldn't have held any meeting or participated in any meeting at Aso Drive" he continued.

 

According to him, he also read some screaming headlines in some newspapers about a purported meeting between him and APC Senators to impeach Saraki. To promised to publish his departure boarding card as well as return boarding card and also the appropriate pages of his international passport to reflect stamps of him being allowed in and out of the United Kingdom.

 

"It is becoming clear that Channels has chosen to channel one-sided information completely abandoning the tradition that Channels has been known for and for which many of us have been very very proud. Last Sunday, it spent hours or several minutes reporting events in the National Assembly. Confronted with hard facts namely that whereas the PDP senators as led by the PDP leader, Senator Bukola Saraki claimed that there was an attempt to impeach him. Their own video camera showed only PDP Senators being in the house along with hundreds of thugs imported by them. And from what we now know, they were there as early from 6 to 7am and the only senators that were found in the National Assembly premises were all PDP Senators. So if indeed there was an attempt to impeach distinguished Senator Saraki, it can only be assumed on the basis of facts available that it is PDP Senators who were determined to impeach Senator Saraki on that day. It cannot be those who were not present” he added.

 

The former Nigeria Labour Congress leader went on to explain that after the World Press Conference organized by Saraki, the leadership of the APC also organized a counter-conference to respond to the issues raised but wasn't given fair coverage by Channels TV.

 

"We also had a press conference which I said was specifically convened a Nigerian press conference, it’s a Nigerian matter to respond to some of the issues raised by the Senate President. Channels also covered that press conference. I would have thought that when the Senate President finished his own version, it was only fair that APC's response was also similarly aired so that the Nigerian viewers can make up their minds. But even our attempts to put our own as advertorial was also declined by Channels TV" Oshiomhole alleged.

 

He later went on to intimate the general public about the purported 'unreliability' of contents produced by Channels TV especially on political issues across the country.

 

"I thought I should say this  because the Nigerian people have a right to know who to believe but our recent history has taught us one thing that when a media house consistently becomes the

 

megaphone of a partisan interest, overtime, the public can see through the lies, the half truth and the untruth and for me, it is unfortunate that Channels could degenerate to that level of spreading false information and fake news in matters of serious national importance” he further explained.

 

Watch the video of Oshiomhole lambasting Channels TV below: