By Akpan Udo-Inyang
CALABAR -Cross River State Commissioner for Information, Pastor Ekpenyong Cobham, has warned residents against celebrating those who have failed in their capacity as public officers.
In his maiden meeting with Journalists in Calabar on Tuesday as the new Information boss, Cobham, disclosed that some of them were in government before but were removed for engaging in not just extortion, but in mal-administration and diversion of funds
He challenged critics of the present administration to “call for a debate, try and raise the bar, educate themselves to the strata we are operating under.”
The Information Commissioner asked them to sit before the press and try to straighten out their crooked lines in terms of bringing their conscience to bear and to let people understand why they lost their jobs.
Specifically talking about the former State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Alphonsus Eba who recently attacked Governor Otu, the Information Commissioner said, “And if he thinks he was pushed out of office wrongly, he is a lawyer. He should have gone to court.”
Cobham added that,”For as long as he has not gone to court to clear himself of such allegations, he is absolutely within the public domain that he is a questionable coward.”
He, disclosed that in his last engagement with him, he said that having been driven from the All Progressives Congress (APC), that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has crowned him with the ticket of deputy governor explaining that he is already celebrating failure before ever he engages in running the election.
“For me, he doesn’t exist. So . Alphonsus Eba, falls under that category,” he also said.
On what the media should expect during his tenure, Cobham, assured of an era of constructive engagement in which government policies and programmes would be properly communicated to avoid misinformation
Henceforth, no room for misinformation of any sort, the new Commissioner added that his era heralds in a period of constructive engagement in information dissemination and strategic analysis of the functions of his office and the public.
“At the shortest notice, except I am not disposed by time. I don’t have any other function other than to propagate the programs of this government and the policies. And even within the privacy of my private time, if I can, I’m ready to engage with you” Cobham also assured.
Hear him, “I have done that in my formal position as Commissioner for Transportation. And I don’t see why I should shy away as Commissioner for Information. I am paid to disseminate information.”
The information Commissioner, promised to take turns around every government project so that collectively we all have our data up to date on the true status of what the government claims has been its accomplished.