The President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Chris Isiguzo, has denied the report that he was denied visa by the American Embassy in Nigeria.
Isiguzo, according to a statement by Comrade Ali Atabor,
Director General of his NUJ presidential campaign organisation, made the rebuttal following an earlier report disclosing that his applications had been turned down two times in three weeks in his effort to travel to the United States.
In the statement titled “Alleged NUJ President visa denial, a dirty campaign by sour election losers”, Isiguzo’s campaign platform named Rescue Mission Organisation said, “A cursory investigation into the source and owners of the blogs bearing the report revealed that the same disgruntled and desperate fellows who lost the NUJ elections more than a year ago were behind it.”
It said, “To further demonstrate their sadistic bent, dept of frustration and readiness to dance naked in the market place and swim in the gutter, they diabolically dragged the name of Thisday Newspaper into the concocted cocktail of fallacy.
“To set the record straight, there is no iota of truth in the publication and the general public is advised to discountenance same.
“This is clearly the handiwork of those who lost election in NUJ and therefore determined to drag everybody down with them. We are sorry, to once again disappoint them by not joining issues with them (which they are desperately seeking), but to allow them to continue to wallow at their decrepit level.
“This is not the first time people are losing in our Union elections. Granted that the pain and shame of losing election in one’s bedroom or homestead could be a bitter pill to swallow, particularly as an incumbent seeking reelection, but one could have expected that having embarked on serial litigations, the losers would be be civilised enough to allow the matter run full course in the court of law instead of endless campaign of calumny, blackmail and mudslinging.
“Suffice it to say that this is not the first of such fallacious publications, which is a clear demonstration of the saying that he who is on the ground, fears no fall again. But, surely, their cup will soon run full and they will come face to face with the consequences of their well documented senseless actions.”
Although RMO said there was no element of truth in the visa denial story, it however did not at any point in the seven-paragraph statement confirm or deny whether or not he attempted obtaining visa to travel to America or not.
It also did not talk about the forgery, which our checks revealed might have been deliberately avoided being a matter before court.
