News, Society

Archbishop Avwomakpa Demands Apology From The Pointer Newspaper

The Press play a critical role in every society as fourth estate of the realm and the Press no doubt, enjoys a place of honour in the heart of the Archbishop of Christ Missionaries Crusaders/ Chairman, of CAN, South South zone.

However, the publication of Saturday Pointer of  May 6, 2017 with the headline “AVWOMAKPA WANTS RELIGIOUS BODIES LICENSED” came to Archbishop Goddowell Avwomakpa as a surprise because it seem the reporter (Emmanuel Ogheneovo) determined to rubbish the reputation which Archbishop Avwomakpa  has built over the decades.

Silence is golden but certainly not when a reporter (Emmanuel Ogheneovo) fabricates a story without talking with Archbishop Avwomakpa and went to publish same as if he spoke with the Archbishop.

The Archbishop was out of the country for over a month and only returned some few days, so where did Mr Ogheneovo get to talk with Archbishop Avwomakpa or where did he get his story from?

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Meanwhile, as far back as 2015 precisely in September, Archbishop Avwomakpa as a follow-up to a story carried by the same Pointer Newspaper of Saturday September 12, 2015 in which the pointer newspaper spoke with a former member of the Delta state Board of Internal Revenue who stated that Churches will pay taxes, the Archbishop did an article titled taxing Religious Institutions: Matters Arising. The article was published in major national and online publications in September 2015

It would interest the teeming public  to know that Archbishop Avwomakpa stated in that article published in September 2015 that the pointer publication was not only provocative against the church, he equally stated that the Pointer story does not also represents the position of the law on taxation in relation to ecclesiastical bodies in Nigeria.

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Furthermore Archbishop Avwomakpa then described the Pointer publication as an effort to project the government at all levels in bad light before Christianity and Islam. Archbishop Avwomakpa concluded in the article that was published in September 2015 that it was wrong to tax churches and mosques as well as schools established by religious bodies to help the less privileged. Why would Archbishop Avwomakpa who has been in the vanguard of no taxation for religious bodies for years now be quoted by the Pointer newspaper as saying that churches should be licensed or taxed. This certainly must be the imagination of the Pointer’s reporter.

If the Pointer reporter was indeed interested in upholding the tenets of sound journalism, he would have adhered to the Marxism which says that facts are sacred and journalists must be factual/objective in their reports at all times. The report of the Pointer newspaper’s reporter is not only false, the story was concocted to defame the Archbishop of Christ Missionaries Crusaders and to embarrass the church.

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It is for this reason, a retraction of the story is demanded and an apology to Archbishop Goddowell Avwomakpa by the Pointer newspaper, failure which the Archbishop will be compelled to take the matter to the necessary authority for further action

Signed

Deacon Ovie Edomi

Special Adviser on Media to Archbishop Dr. Goddowell Avwomakpa