The Director General of Sierra Leone Ports and Harbours Authority (SLPHA), Yankuba Askia Bio, has given stern warning to media practitioners and bloggers who are in the notorious habit of publishing fake stories aimed at blackmailing him and the Management of the Authority for selfish reasons and personal aggrandisement.
The result-oriented Director General also warned journalists and bloggers who are amplifying the recent audit report about the Authority with the aim of blackmailing him and the management.
According to the SLPHA Director General, Yankuba A. Bio, at the time that the Audit Report recommended to the Authority to buy essential equipment to save lives, the management was already at an advanced stage for the procurement process, which he said has almost been completed.
“SLPHA has a professional public and corporate affairs department where I expect journalists to crosscheck their information about the Authority before they go to press. But that is not happening. Instead, they either misinform the public about our operations with impunity or they keep recycling the audit report like a court verdict.”
Mr. Bio, therefore, warned that any journalists or bloggers who would misinform the public about the operations of the Authority would face the wrath of the law, noting that the media and government agencies are supposed to be partners in development instead of them being the messiahs of doom and gloom.
The DG said the management acknowledged the concern raised in the audit report because it was a problem that they inherited from the previous administration, noting that the procurement of critical emergency response equipment was prioritised in their transformation drive even before the audit report came out.
Mr. Bio therefore advised journalists to feel free to crosscheck their information about the Authority with the public and corporate affairs department of the Authority so that they would not fall foul of the law.
“When I assumed the position of Director General of the Authority, I knew there were many challenges that needed to be addressed, and it was against this backdrop that my management initiated the ongoing transformation drive to change the narrative of the Authority,” the Director General averred.
He stressed that his efforts in the ongoing transformation drive have raised the bar at both regional and international levels, adding that no negative reporting of the operations of the Authority will dampen his spirit of raising the SLPHA to the envy of the continent and the world at large.
Mr. Bio, however, gave a stern warning to journalists who portray the Authority negatively in order to blackmail him and his management.
“As much as I appreciate His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio for giving me the opportunity to serve my country, I have also made a solemn promise never to disappoint him but to make a benchmark in my tenure,” the DG assures.
He entreated media practitioners to always feel free to crosscheck their information with the public and corporate affairs department before they go to press.
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