No armed robbery attack on athletes…satanic reports damage image of Nigeria, says Aniagwu

Athletes participating at the on – going national sports festival, their officials, journalists and visitors to Asaba, the host city are assured of adequate security, says Charles Aniagwu, reports www.totorinews.com.

Aniagwu, who is the Commissioner of Information in the state, said that there was no incident of armed robbery attack on any athletes contrary to fake news in circulation about some athletes being attacked, which never happened.

He disclosed this during the interactive section with journalists covering the sports festival at the Stephen Keshi stadium on Monday evening, where he admonished journalists to desist from writing negative news built on the foundation of falsehood and malicious intents, engineered by some political undertones to undermine the state and to large extent, Nigeria.

“Let me make it crystal clear that no armed robbery attack in this State since the 21st edition of Nigerian version of Olympics started. We provide a reasonable human security apparatus that can curtail any criminal action and if anyone could challenge it with fact, please provide such evidence,” Aniagwu said.

“I sincerely appreciate your efforts for the coverage of this event tagged Delta 2022 National Sports Festival. Nigeria belongs to all of us and I think some persons amongst us who always look for something negative to push out to the public even when it does not exist should always attach evidence for clarity. 

“Looking for what is negative to either bring somebody down does not help our country. You end up not bringing the person down but actually communicating a wrong information to the entire world. 

“Whatever you post out there is not only consumed here in Nigeria but also consumed outside the shores of this country. Don’t forget what they usually say that Internet never forgets. 

He continued, “When individual either because of political inclination or because of little personal discomfort decides to abuse the privilege of having that medium to speak lies to the rest of the world, that would not be good for the image of our country. 

“I have covered various sporting events both in Nigeria and internationally, the hosts usually don’t provide accommodation to reporters but we can only mitigate whatever your cost is if we feel you are doing a great job but Delta State still provides comfort as much as we can do,” he said.

Dwelling on the events at the sports festival, Aniagwu said that Team Delta is determined to maintain her status as number one sporting state in Nigeria.

“In the competition proper, old records have been broken, new records have been made.  Team Delta is keeping fate with host to win.

As at the time of filing this report, Team Delta is topping the table with 69 gold medals, 33 silver medals and 25 bronze medals.

Ogun State is second with 10 gold medals, 6 silver medals and 9 bronze medals.