SarnerPFM Rejoinder: Where is our $317m Delta Leisure Resorts?

We refer to the article written by one Lucky Onoriode George on the 25th of January 2015, which was brought to our attention. It is a much-needed reminder of level of petty journalism the world is exposed to and an unacceptable abuse of social media by some self-proclaimed journalists who publish articles without any facts or grounds for their publication, or any ounce of integrity. It is a well-known fact what the art of blackmail entails so in order to paint the public a true picture, we have decided to address some of the false information in the article.

The project is a PPP (Public Private Partnership) with the Delta State Government in which the government only provides land and makes available infrastructure to access the land in return for 10% ownership of the project. What then is the N50bn? The land or the infrastructure the government has not yet provided in its entirety?

The same journalist had earlier written a similar fraudulent and malicious article against the project in a cheap attempt to blackmail the government and the project back on the 29th of June 2013, titled “More Worries for Delta State’s $550m Tourism Projects”. ([url]http://saharareporters.com/2013/06/29/more-worries-delta-state%E2%80%99s-550m-tourism-projects-lucky-onoriode-george[/url])
From the earlier article and this his new publication, it is very clear that this journalist does not have a clue about the project, is not interested in the project and cannot be bothered to get his facts right. He is only interested in cheap blackmail, extortion and discrediting both the project and government as well destroying investment opportunities in this country.

The Managing Director was approached by the author to sign an exclusive contract to cover all media and advertising relating to the project in his “tourism magazine”, which she blatantly refused, hence his personal vendetta against her person and the project, worst still he cannot even be bothered to get right the name of the person he is so fetishly attacking.

Not only does the fact of both articles contradict themselves, the bodies of both articles are meaningless and baseless, a show of the worst kind of journalism even for an amateur - all these terrible journalists engineered and geared towards cheap blackmailing, and misleading the public.

We do not wish to join issues with such unprofessionalism and illiteracy, as well as someone clearly suffering from delusions of grandeur.

We are sure Delta State Government would soon respond to N50billion supposedly misappropriated/missing from its coffers perhaps they would be lucky enough to find it in the bank account of Lucky George and his accomplices at eTurboNews.

If the author of these articles had even made slightest attempt to do some intelligent journalism, he would have realized that the total build cost of both parks and the entire project including land and infrastructure is N45bn. Reason and common sense then deduces that if N50bn was invested in the project by the Delta State Government, it would have been completed, opened and fully owned by the government.

In conclusion, it is obvious that this flagrant disregard of journalistic powers was aimed to discredit the good works of the joint venture between the Delta State Government and SarnerPFM Resorts Ltd. The article has been written in bad faith, is libellous and wants to mislead the general public, at the same time, tarnishing the image of persons mentioned directly and indirectly.

We also urge the media to kindly desist from using this project for any political means and to any selfish end, as we would not take it lightly, and think about the consequences of their journalism on the private sector and investment in Nigeria as a nation and Africa as a continent.

Anyone interested in finding more about the project should please visit - www.deltaresortparks.com