South South chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has cast aspersions against social media influencer, Martins Vincent Otse, known as VeryDarkMan, over an unwarranted and slanderous verbal attack on the person of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, for leading a five-man federal government delegation to the funeral of Pope Francis last Saturday at the Vatican.
APC’s Zonal Organizing Secretary, Mr. Blessing Agbomhere, in a statement on Sunday, warned VeryDarkMan to desist from slandering law-abiding and critical stakeholders in project Nigeria, all in the name of activism.
In a three-minute viral video on social media, VeryDarkMan described Akpabio’s visit to Rome as shameful, insisting that the President of the Senate lacked the moral standing to attend the Pope’s funeral when he would have used less time to visit Benue, Plateau, Kwara, Ogun, and Enugu states that are currently bedeviled by large-scale insecurity as a result of attacks by marauding herdsmen which has led to the death of scores of innocent Nigerians.
Agbomhere urged Nigerians to ignore what he termed “the uninformed ranting” of VeryDarkMan, adding that the current administration is working assiduously behind the scene to tackle the pervasive insecurity across the country which it inherited from previous administrations.
The Edo-born politician called on VeryDarkMan to immediately tender an unreserved apology to the President of the Senate and number three citizen of Nigeria, Senator Godswill Akpabio, over the verbal attack.
“This individual known as VeryDarkMan is now notorious for blackmail, slander, and character assassination while pretending to be an advocate for the masses and social crusader. The unwarranted verbal attack on the President of the Senate is yet another of such aimless, baseless, and uninformed diatribe, this time, targeted at the number three citizen of Nigeria who did not send himself to Rome but was duly nominated by President Bola Tinubu to lead a strong five-man delegation to represent Nigeria at the Pope’s funeral. What exactly is wrong in that?,” he noted.
“Being a devout Catholic and family man with unblemished character, President Tinubu saw in Akpabio a worthy ambassador of Nigeria to such an event as the Pope’s funeral and wasted no time in thrusting that responsibility on him.
“Just like the Scriptures admonished Christians to celebrate with those that are celebrating and to mourn with those that are bereaved, the Nigerian delegation led by Akpabio joined the rest of the world to mourn the passing of the Head of the Catholic Church, what is wrong in that?
“I am, with this statement, issuing VeryDarkMan a one-week ultimatum to immediately tender an unreserved apology to the President of the Senate for the slanderous comments and to desist from further bringing the integrity of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration into disrepute in the eyes of the global community.
“Upon his return from France and the United Kingdom, President Tinubu met with Security Chiefs and during the meeting he gave them marching orders to ensure that a different approach is deployed in the fight against insecurity, does this sound like a man who is not serious about protecting the lives and property of Nigerians?
“Mind you, the complex security problems in the country cannot be wished away with a wave of the hand, it takes time to achieve a semblance of peace and that is a commitment that the Tinubu-led administration made to Nigerians while assuming office and is still committed to achieving,” the statement concludes.
