The Media Justice Nigeria (MJN) on Friday described Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, as a deceiver who told Nigerians that terrorists had been degraded.
The group insisted that if it were to be so, there would have been none for the BBC and Trust TV to interview.
MJN further argued that the N5m fine on Trust TV alongside other broadcast stations is unjust and condemnable.
MJN in a statement issued by its Director, Anote Ajeluorou, who sees as misplaced, the description by Mohammed of the interviews of some ‘terrorists’ as “glorifying terrorism, banditry, stated that, “It must be pointed out that the threat and fine are clear admittance of failure for the government to tackle insecurity in the country.
“Mr Mohammed and the NBC Director General, Balarabe Shehu Illela need to be reminded that since the government of Muhammadu Buhari assumed office over seven years ago, Mr Mohammed had regaled Nigerians and the international community with tales of terrorists having been “technically degraded and technically defeated”, and that they no longer have the capacity to harm.
“If terrorists had been degraded, as Mr Mohammed had proclaimed to the world, there would have been none for the BBC and Trust TV to interview. This means Mr Mohammed deceived the whole world by saying one thing while the government he serves did another thing.
“In other words, Mr Mohammed lied to the world about degraded Boko Haram and bandits that are still terrorising innocent Nigerians, killing, maiming, and rendering millions homeless every day.
“By threatening and fining media houses for carrying out their constitutional duty, Mr Mohammed has merely shown a tendency for scapegoatism, a refusal to take responsibility, rather than deal with the terrorists who have threatened to kidnap Mr President and other high-profile Nigerians.
“Mr Mohammed is therefore advised to impress it on the government of Mr Buhari to instead go after the terrorists and bandits in their hideouts that these media sought them out to interview and make Nigeria safe, at least to the way their government met it in 2015.
“Many Nigerians are still languishing in kidnappers’ dens while Mr Buhari’s government remains helpless, hapless, and clueless.
“Ironically, what Mr Mohammed’s threat of sanction and NBC’s fining Trust TV represent is his government grasping at straws as it drowns under the weight of insecurity.”
He said while security agencies could not access terrorist enclaves to flush them out, an Islamic cleric, Gumi, walked in and out of terrorists’ dens and even asked the government to grant terrorists amnesty.
Ajeluorou said: “Why didn’t Mr Mohammed sanction the cleric for being the spokesman of terrorists? Why is interviewing terrorists more heinous a crime than asking for amnesty and negotiating for them?”
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