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“Trust But Verify”
It’s important to be sure of the facts before you publish or repeat them.
It has come to the attention of the Play Forum that several respected citizens, and bloggers have been engaged in what we can only describe as erroneous reporting as regards the Play Forum Townhall Meeting held on the 1st of February 2015.
This as we have come to understand is largely due to a misleading caption on a video posted on the Facebook page of a Mr Ibrahim Adewumi.
This same video, along with its misleading information has found its way to portals such as ENDS.ng (Every Nigerian Do Something), Sahara Reporters, Lindaikeji.com, Naij.com, PMNewsnigeria.com, news24.com, Lailasblog among others.
We will not make much of this as we are fairly certain that this was done in error and not as a malicious act of any kind.
It has however prompted us to again state exactly what The Play Forum Townhall Meeting was.
The Political Leadership Among Youths (P.L.A.Y.) Forum is a body set up to foster youth engagement in matters of the nation, specifically with regards to voting officials into political office.
A forum was held on Sunday, the 1st of February, 2015 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel Congress Hall, Abuja.
The upscale black-tie event hosted political stakeholders such as Dr Oby Ezekwesili, the Senior Economic Adviser – Open Security Foundations, who gave the keynote address titled “Killing Apathy: The Office of the Citizen”.
The DG – Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Mr Frank Nweke Jr. was also in attendance and gave the second keynote speech on “Why we must get Involved” addressing the youth and encouraging participation in matters of the nation.
The Political parties in attendance were PDP with a team of 6 representatives led by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, and APC also with a team of 6 representatives led by Boss Mustapha and Professor Okey.
Following entertainment by Classical guitarist, Jaiye and Musical Crooner Timi Dakolo, a Q&A session began where attendees were guided to limit questions to three main sectors; politics and good governance, the economy and security instability.
Both parties represented were given a chance to answer audience questions and final remarks given by Barrister Ismaila for the APC and Dr Okupe for the PDP. It was a heated discussion with vibrant audience participation and enthusiasm.
At this point we would like to categorically state the following:
• The Play Forum Townhall meeting was in no way a press briefing for Mr Doyin Okupe or any other individual.
• Again, the event was held at The Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Abuja and not at Aso Villa.
We would like to thank Bellanaija.com for their support and stellar levels of professionalism in covering and reporting information.
Sincerely,
The Play Forum