Recently, an article under the headline: ‘Time to Call Hon Sani Ogembe to Order’ was published by the Ahmed Dahiru media team. It is normal for a public figure, a successful one for that matter, to attract occasional sneer, derision or outright envy. But it is abnormal when such a thing is turned into an organised mob of muckrakers with a mandate to smear the target personality by every available spit they could get. This is the case with an on-going mudslinging against Hon, Sani Ogembe, the PDP candidate in the just concluded Okene II House of Assembly election using the free passage of all garbage offered by the handy social media.
A recent example of such trashy offerings; one that went viral on account of the key words deliberately used to attract curious readers and to easily smear is titled ‘Time to call Hon, Sani Ogembe To Order and the politics of Okene 2 Constituency’, penned under an obvious pseudonym of Haco Media Team.
The mudslingers got a lot of people there. Hon Sani Ogembe’s involvement in politics is service to humanity. Ordinarily, people would want to find out what links a respected personality like Hon Sani Ogembe with Haco, to put the record intact, was the just concluded election when he was the PDP candidate and Haco was the APC candidate, which is been challenged in the competent court.
However, from the very first sentence of the piece, the emotion of the hatchet men is laid bare. The intent, as the opening line crudely puts it. Hon Sanni Ogembe’s public life as one who care and value his people and he will never set his people against each other, all in the name of politics.
The instinct initially was to laugh this off and move on, as one of those things politicians often encounter. However, on a second thought one is tempted to put out a response because the professional liars in Haco Media Team who authored the faceless hogwash presented tissues of lies in a way that may look factual to unsuspecting public who knows not.
First, let me say that I am an innocent bystander in this issue. I am intervening because I am knowledgeable enough about most of the issues raised in the initial article. I am not holding brief for Hon Sani Ogembe and the fact that he knows nothing about this work gives me the pleasure to state what I know without inhibitions or guidance from him. The said article stands on no factual ground. It is sheer concoctions. At best, it is not more than a spectacular fictional narrative skewed together by a fertile mind with agenda for grave mischief.
To accuse Hon Sani Ogembe of engaging his media aide, in discord, does not exist. It is not only funny but a clear assault on truth, and on the man’s personality and intelligence. In truth, chasing shadows (which is what vying for a non-existent post is) is the least thing that can be inferred in Hon Sani Ogembe dealings as a public servant.
Additionally, from the searchlight some of us have kept on him over the years, Hon Sani Ogembe is a man of faith with a strong sense of gratitude to the almighty who has elevated him. This has never been lost on the Sani Ogembe that I know.
For him, and all people of faith, chasing after another thing when you are not half-way into what God almighty blessed you with is some mark of ingratitude. For emphasis, Sani Ogembe has never had divided attention since the election which was rigged in favor of Haco of the APC, because he believe in retrieving his mandate back at the court of law. It should also be stated that as someone who has been actively involved in politics since the beginning of this democratic dispensation, Hon, Sani Ogembe has developed extensive network of friends, associates and admirers, so it is foolish and mischievous for any of his engagements with such associates to be interpreted in any narrow manner.
One is entitled to disagree or even hate Hon, Sani Ogembe for whatever personal reason, but the allegations labeled against him is almost the zenith such malicious undertaking could attain. It is not just because Sani Ogembe name is smeared but also because of the dangerous name dropping and dragging of the names of very important and responsible personalities just to achieve the sinister aim of portraying Hon Sani Ogembe – who from all indications, is minding his business and pushing is case at the election petition tribunal in Abuja – in a very bad light.
– Comrade Ochesuru Muhammed Jameel
