Efio-Ita Nyok|28 November 2015| 6:00pm
Efio-Ita Nyok, a writer, blogger and the editor of Cross River based leading blog, namely, negroidhaven.com (Negroid Haven ) who, incidentally and hitherto was a contributing member of Cross River most influential online socio-political group, to wit, Cross River State Coalition for Change(CRSCFC), has been unceremoniously shut out of the said group for obvious reasons of posting anti-political establishment publications culled from his blog.
As at press time, it was not yet clear who removed the influential blogger from the social media group: is it the administrators of the group as led by Edward Onabe, etc or is it that the said group has been hacked or compromised by unscrupulous elements paid for by the state government? The above inquiries are begging for prompt clarifications.
On the one hand, indications from a recent inquiry suggest very strongly that the integrity of the leadership of the said online group may have been compromised, though the present author can't pontificate on that for now. However, we are asking the administration of 'the Coalition' to make a public statement on this.
On the other hand, should it be that the account of Cross River State Coalition for Change (CRSCFC) has been compromised by some undemocratic elements, the question becomes: who paid this hackers to remove perceived enemies of the government from strategic social media groups beyond the objective control of the administration of 'the Coalition', is it not the government? And if it is the government, why hasn't the administration of CRSCFC come out plain to dissociate or associate themselves from the trend? Or, is 'the Coalition' a propagandist tool for/of the Governor Ben Ayade administration?
This trend of removing members from designated social media groups because of their perceived enmity with the government is another dimension to an ongoing movement of clamping down on bloggers, independent writers, critics, etc in Cross River. Initially, these said elements embarked on bugging the phones, Facebook accounts, etc of critics.
Beyond this, the government is now seen to resort to engaging the services of security apparatus to intimidate its critics. Concerning this, the police, on 26 November, invited a popular critic, Barr. Joseph Odok to appear before her in Zone 6 on 30 November for questioning on allegation of threat to life brought to its notice by the senator representing Central Senatorial District, Owan Enoh.
The question is, between Sen. Owan Enoh and Joseph Odok, who should be afraid of who? The federal government is paying for the protection of Enoh unlike Joseph Odok, a harmless and private citizen, who fends for himself. This seem to the present author to be a puerile attempt at shutting the mouth of critics of Gov. Ayade.
While they use the gargantuan public resources at their disposal to undemocratically frustrate the fundamental right of freedom of speech, association and the right to hold opinion, it should be noted that, with or without Cross River State Coalition For Change, the truth will and must be told. And because, darkness will not ultimately prevail against light, falsehood over truth and evil against good, may it be known by all and sundry that we will prevail.
More so, the interesting thing about the whole experience is that while critics of the government are being persecuted with the intention of muffling their voices, they are unwittingly been transmogrified into living martyrs.
Indeed, it's a truism that 'the pen is mightier than the sword'!
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Writer, Blogger & the Editor of negroidhaven.com
