The Enugu State government yesterday described as lamentable, efforts by a group in the state to create doubts over the authenticity of a picture of Governor Sullivan Chime and three other governors, which was published in most national dailies last Wednesday.
In a statement signed by Chukwudi Achife, chief press secretary to Governor Chime, governors Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Gabriel Suswam (Benue) and Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers) were shown in the picture, standing and chatting with Governor Chime in London on Tuesday.
The statement dismissed the claims by the group, which called itself ‘Save Enugu Group,’ that the picture was fake as “another desperate and futile effort to deceive the public.”
Achife stated that though the government ordinarily would not have wished to join issues with anyone on such a clear matter, it was appalled by what he described as the group’s regrettable effort to impugn the integrity of the governors who had appeared with Chime in the picture as well as that of the newspapers that published it.
The statement reads: “The claim by the so-called “Save Enugu Group’, that a picture of Governor Chime and his Akwa Ibom, Benue and Rivers counterparts in London was fake can only be described as lamentable.
“The government would ordinarily not have bothered to join issues with anyone on a matter that is manifestly clear and verifiable, but we consider as regrettable the vain efforts of the group to impugn the integrity of the governors by falsely claiming that they were not in that location on the day the picture was taken.”