Despite the condemnation that followed his attack on a Daily Trust reporter, Eyo Charles, for asking a simple question at a press conference in Calabar, Cross River State, former Minister of A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has said he won’t apologise over his conduct.
At a press conference held at the end of his tour of Cross River State, the Daily Trust reporter asked the simple question about who was bankrolling his tour that had seen him visit five states earlier.
The question by the Daily Trust reporter rattled Fani-Kayode who described him as stupid among other things.
In his reaction to the condemnation that greeted his outburst, Fani-Kayode said:
“During my tour of the South and after a long and successful press conference in Calabar, Cross Rivers state, a journalist put up his hand for the last question and said: ‘Well we do not know who is bankrolling you.’
“This is not a question but an assertion and an insult.
“And if this insulting ASSERTION were made before Trump or OBJ I know how they would have reacted.
“Below is my response and I have no apology to offer for it.
“The young man apologized to me during the press conference and sent his apologies to me after the conference. I have accepted his apologies in good faith and moved on.
“I have always had respect for journalists and I always will. Those of them that know me or have worked with or for me over the last 30 years can attest to that.
“However there is a distinction between asking a question and offering a gratuitous insult .
“This is all the more so when it is clear that the assertion was sponsored and engineered by my political enemies who wanted to use the young man to insult and embarrass me and question my integrity. Well they got more than they bargained for.
“I repeat this was not a question but an assertion and an insult and I will not accept that from any man born of woman. Thank you.”
