NewsRescue
A well renowned and respected, quality author, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri has grouses with NewsRescue for publishing her unedited article from PremiumTimes with a detailed caption naming ex-army chief Ihejirika as the head of the army responsible for the army blunders she described. NewsRescue received this article from a well respected blogger who sent it to us as important evidence of Ihejirika’s role in the current Boko Haram crisis. Her reaction is quoted at bottom.
@NewsRescue @gimbakakanda The original article NEVER mentioned Ihejirika’s name.TWISTING Victoria’s article as basis to indict him is WRONG!
— Spaces for Change (@Spaces4Change) September 8, 2014
Though her accusations of “Plagiarism” are not really accurate to put it respectfully mildly, we respect her anxiety, after realizing that her quality report 6 months prior had more serious implications in the future. All authors should be aware of the full implication of their published material, at present and ahead. Ms Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, being an attorney, we have no doubts recognizes this and the basic human responsibility and culpability for words professed. We believe she should rather be proud to have highlighted the dangerous actions of army chief Ihejirika to all Nigerians before the foreign Stephen Davis did.
Our article was captioned, “Boko Haram: How Ihejirika Triggered Worst Crisis In NE By Disbanding JTF And Transferring Out All Skilled Personnel, by Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri”
Her original masterpiece article in PremiumTimes was captioned and contained excerpt:
“Disbanding the JTF in the North-east was a grave mistake, by Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri; Published 6 months ago
“Disbanding the JTF is apparently one of the worst things that ever happened to the security crisis in the north east. Ever since a military division was established to take over from JTF, the security infrastructure over there appears to be on the verge of total collapse, while most of the skilled military personnel may have been transferred out of the region.”
It is important to mention that we did not put the caption in inverted commas to mean it is a direct quote of Victoria’s. We used the appendage, “by” meaning that the message in header was delivered by her. Headers are not necessarily direct quotes but editor’s summaries of messages published. We could as well have said: Victoria says that…….. . There is no dispute that M. Victoria blamed the army of the items in her article; her only grouse is that she did not mention the chief of army’s name, and we did.
See: PremiumTimes, September 7, 2013: New Army division to be adequately enhanced – Ihejirika
Further, to better protect and maintain her work as is/was, we retained her original header at the top of the published article. This is unrivaled professionalism.
We respect her frustration and apprehension as General Ihejirika likely did not enjoy reading her message as re-published by our editorial. NewsRescue maintains the highest level of professionalism at all times. General Azubuike Ihejirika was head of the army at the time the army made the blunders she ascribed to it. Even if General Ihejirika wishes to absolve himself of the blame and accuse the Commander in Chief, President Jonathan as having given him the orders to disband the JTF; he still is culpable in the action as the head of the army; and as such is still implicated by Victoria’s article.
We value Ms. Victoria’s contributions to the national dialogue of Nigeria and would be ready to address any concerns she has in relation to our article(s). Nigerians are grateful to her for her analysis in this particular event which has proven critical in reviewing the performance of the chief of army over the 5 years of Boko Haram carnage. Most recently, respected Jibrin Ibrahim, Chairman of Premium Times editorial board, highlighted the implications of her findings in requesting the investigation of General Ihejirika:
People have always wondered why General Azubuike Ihejirika deliberately disbanded the JTF, which meant that only the army would be in charge of the operation. It was a curious decision as the other services, the DSS, Police, Navy, Air Force, Customs, Immigration, etc., all have important roles to play. Could it be that there were ulterior motives for the action? – Jibrin Ibrahim
See full: https://blogs.premiumtimesng.com/2014/09/08/options-for-saving-bornonigeria-by-jibrin-ibrahim
Victoria’s facebook complaint:
Here in the United States, the first-ever course taught in many universities warns against PLAGIARISM. It is a literary crime despised by all academic institutions. The other ugly side of plagiarism is wrongful copying and willful distortion of the meaning and context of an information presented by the original author.
Whoever re-titled and republished this article (Boko Haram: What Options for the Military) that I penned several months ago – published by PremiumTimes NG – needs to have his head examined. The article neither mentioned nor referenced Ihejirika in any way, but yet some daft coward somewhere re-titled the article, criminally twisting it out of context. Sadly, many unthinking minds are busy sharing the refurbished nonsense, and its already going viral on the internet.
In a normal country, suing the publishers of this news site is the only right thing to do. I need to talk to a smart lawyer right away.
PLEASE IGNORE THIS SPOOF!
