The Civil Society Group for Good Governance, a coalition of over 180 civil society organizations, has cautioned Nigerians, especially media commentators and social media enthusiasts to desist from the media trial of the Air Peace, CEO, Mr. Allen Onyema over the allegations of Money laundering against him by the US government.
Briefing journalists in Abuja Wednesday, Comrade Ogakwu Dominic, the President, CSGGGG, reiterated that until proven guilty, Mr. Oyema is innocent and those indicting him ahead of even the court’s decision stand the risks of litigation if the court pronounced him innocent.
He also tasked the Federal Government to verify all the allegations by the United States government.
“Nigerians stand in solidarity behind Onyema, as this issue if escalated further with lips blasting and further accusations would be very cancerous on Nigeria and its foundation especially in the Aviation sector” Mr. Dominic said.
“Mr Onyema should be treated fairly and given fair rights to come out and publicly clear his name, until then all reports on the issue should be withheld forthwith, which maybe considered as libelous, if the said allegation is proven otherwise” he said.
The CSOs also said “the Nigeria Government should verify all claims made by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia against Mr. Onyema, for immediate clarification.”
“These are our honest and modest request from you the people of Nigeria, especially the media, the social media influencers, e.g facebook influencers, the twit addict, all those who will stop at nothing, but continue to spread the unpatriotic story, targeted at painting the Image of AirPeace Airline in the negative light in the public domain” he noted.
The Group noted that in it’s “understudy of Onyema and his activities, we have gathered that Mr. Onyema, is a man who played patriotic role in protecting the image of Nigeria in the recent times, for single-handedly evacuated about 500 Nigerians from South Africa during the xenophobic attacks in September, a feat which cost him about 280million naira to achieve.”
“Barely few months, an unverified report sprang up and Nigerians who should stand for their own, has refused to do so instead, ganged up both in the Electronic and Print Media, Social media to drag a man who has continuously placed Nigeria on the map, which we considered as media gang up against Mr Onyema, which is unacceptable and unpatriotic on the part of Nigerians” the Group lamented.
