Minister denies involvement in journalist, Tom Ohia’s detention

Minister of State for Power Goddy Jedy-Agba has denied having a hand in the detention of the publisher of Power Steering Magazine Tom Ohia.

A statement by the Special Assistant to the Minister on Media and Communications Strategy Ofem Uket stated that the policemen who detained the journalist got the warrant of arrest to pick him up after he turned down their invitations.

“The publisher had alleged in its July 2020 edition of the magazine, that the minister bribed the Nigerian Police in 2012 to suppress investigations into the ill-fated Dana plane crash conveying passengers from Abuja to Lagos.

He was also said to have alleged that the crash was masterminded by the minister when he served as Group General Manager Crude Marketing at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC.

The minister said: “Contrary to concocted media reports, certainly not from the mainstream media alleging that the publisher was being detained by the police on the orders of the minister of state for power, Goddy Agba, it had become necessary to set the records straight by disclosing that the police secured a warrant of arrest to go after the publisher who had declined an invitation by the police to appear before it to answer questions bothering on allegations of fraud.