• Tuesday, April 23, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Foreign Ministry dismisses alleged video of Onyeama being chased out in Austria

Geoffrey Onyeama

 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has dismissed an alleged video of the Minister Geoffrey Onyeama being chased out of a meeting in Vienna Austria describing it as an old video. The ministry also condemned the circulation of the old video by mischief makers and called on the public to disregard the video in its entirety.

A statement issued in Abuja on Friday by Ferdinand Nwonye spokesperson of the ministry, said “the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been drawn to an old video circulating on the social media, purporting to show disruption of a meeting the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, was holding with some members of the Nigerian Community in the Embassy of Nigeria in Vienna, Austria.

“The Ministry wishes to unequivocally inform that the incident captured in the video took place three years ago. The facts are that at the end of a very pleasant and informative interactive session, a group of no more than five individuals complained vociferously that they had not been given the opportunity to speak.

“The Minister in his magnanimity prevailed on the organizers to allow a representative of the group to speak, and the fellow when given the floor unfortunately proceeded to make incoherent declarations against the unity of the Nigeria. The Honourable Minister in his response condemned the glorification of conflict and admonished them that they were too young to appreciate the traumatic horrors of violent conflict as witnessed during the Nigerian Civil War.”

The statement added that one of the young men took exemption to the Honourable Minister’s peaceful disposition and was getting more agitated and vocal, at which point the Minister was ushered out of the meeting room as the meeting had already ended.