Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
With the recent lockdown by many states in the country over the ravaging impact of the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19), skeletons are beginning to open cupboards on the reckless activities of many politicians, especially in the south-southern state known as the treasure base of the nation, which may have resulted in the first case recorded in the state thus the governor’s directive to close the state borders and the subsequent sack of a renowned journalist in the state for letting the cat out of the bag.
Sources within the state revealed that the 19-year-old Edo-model whose travel history showed that she had been to France, Italy and Greece before returning to Port Harcourt on the 16th of March, 2020 as widely reported has been globe throttling with a Nigerian Senator who lodged her in a popular hotel in Abuja on their return to the country before journeying to Rivers State for a political meeting.
While the senator was still in Port Harcourt, the 19-year-Old Model at Abuja started feeling feverish and reached out to the senator who out of fear ordered one of his drivers in the company of one of his police orderly to immediately bring the girl down to Rivers State by Road as using the Airport will surely arouse suspicion.
The girl we learnt on arrival was quarantined at her residence before her blood sample which was earlier collected tested positive.
While diligently discharging his duties in reporting the index case of Covid-19 in the state, Mr Vincent Ake, the Managing Director of Nigerian Tide; the most widely circulated newspaper published in Rivers State, owned and funded by the state became a victim of the state government’s wrath as he was immediately fired by the Rivers State Governor for allegedly allowing the identity of the Senator to be published in the State-owned Newspaper contrary to the story the government was selling.
Though the state government did not state the reason behind his sack in the press statement signed by the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, it was widely speculated as a coverup that Mr Ake was fired because the governor was provoked that the state-owned newspaper was one of the first to break the news of the first case of an infected person of Covid-19 in Rivers State without first getting approval from the Taskforce on Coronavirus set up by the state.
The report on the first case of Covid-19 in the state was, however, conspicuously not seen on the online platform of the state-run news medium as at the time of filing this report buttressing the allegation by many that the story must have been quashed to avoid exposing the senator.
