A leading pro-democracy and non-governmental organization-\u00a0HUMAN RIGHTS<\/p>\n
WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA)\u00a0has described as shameful and
\nreprehensible the reported harassment of a Journalist of The Guardian
\nNewspaper by officials of the Nigerian High Commission in London, the
\nUnited Kingdom over the weekend.<\/p>\n
The group has also demanded that the National Assembly must take concrete
\nand verifiable measures to sanction officials of the Nigerian Embassy in
\nOntario, Canada accused of serial corruption and mistreatment of our
\nnationals in that country who are constantly extorted of their hard earned
\nmoney just to obtain the renewals of their Nigerian passports.<\/p>\n
In a statement by the\u00a0National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and
\nthe National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, the Rights group
\nsaid it was a crime against constitutional democracy that public officials
\nserviced by the Nigerian tax payers could subject a Nigerian journalist to
\nhorrendous ordeals.<\/p>\n
HURIWA calls the invitation of the metropolitan police of London to arrest
\nand detain\u00a0The Guardian\u00a0Journalist\u00a0as outrageous and barbaric more so when
\nthe media worker was just legitimately attempting to do his reportorial
\nduty to Nigerians in line with the Nigerian Constitution to furnish the
\nNigerian readers with the correct information on the wellbeing
\nof\u00a0President Muhammadu Buhari\u00a0who has been on an extended medical vacation
\nfor a month.<\/p>\n
HURIWA faulted the claim of the Embassy officials that the Nigerian House
\nwas a private residence because the housing assets were acquired with tax
\npayers’ fund drawn from the public till and therefore the House in London
\nvisited by the London based The Guardian of Nigeria Journalist is a public
\nhousing assets belonging to the people of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
HURIWA\u00a0affirmed that by the virtue of\u00a0Section 22\u00a0of the Nigerian
\nConstitution the Nigerian media is well within its constitutional
\nresponsibility to investigate such a national story like the opaque nature
\nof handling of the Nigerian President\u2019s medical vacation by his close
\nstaff which has created unprecedented anxieties and tensions in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the Constitutional duty of the media to inform, educate and
\nentertain the Nigerian citizenry with the much anticipated verifiable,
\nobjective, sound, balanced and non-partisan information about the
\nwhereabouts and exact health status of the President who is the President
\nby the virtue of the legitimacy of the assignment given to him by the
\nelectorate during the year 2015 election,” it argued.<\/p>\n
Continuing, the Rights group averred thus: ” The Nigerian President is no
\nlonger a private citizen but the leader of the people of Nigeria which
\nobliges officials of government the constitutional task of allowing the
\nmedia to play her role allowed within the context of Section 22 of the
\nConstitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended)\u201d.<\/p>\n
Specifically\u00a0Section 22\u00a0of the Constitution States thus: \u201cThe press,
\nradio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times
\nbe free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and
\nuphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the
\npeople.\u201d<\/p>\n
HURWA\u00a0condemned the hostile attitudes of the Nigerian officials in the
\nNigeria\u2019s United Kingdom Embassy for embarrassing the country by inviting
\nthe British Police to arrest a Nigerian Journalist just for carrying out
\nhis legitimate work on behalf of the Nigerian People.<\/p>\n
HURIWA said: “the journalist was simply doing his duty for Nigerians \u00a0who
\nare deliberately kept in the dark by Presidency officials and are being
\nmanipulated and maltreated with the short end of the stick by close aides
\nof the \u201cmissing\u201d President by bombarding the Nigerian reading public with
\nPhotographs as if the whole thing has become a Nollywood drama.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides, the Rights group said the secrecy surrounding the exact
\nwhereabouts and health status of the Nigerian President has subjected
\nNigerians to global opprobrium by the global media that have started
\nmaking caricatures with the seemingly unending medical vacation in the
\nUnited Kingdom of the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. “These
\nmisgivings are worsening the Economic recession in Nigeria because foreign
\ninvestors are no longer sure of the political stability of Nigeria because
\nof the choreographed information confusion weaved around by influential
\nkitchen cabinet members of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration
\nconcerning the health status of the Nigerian President”.<\/p>\n
HURIWA\u00a0recalled that Security staff at the Abuja House in London\u00a0on
\nSunday\u00a0called in policemen to arrest a correspondent of The Guardian who
\nwas on the premises to see President Muhammadu Buhari and possibly
\ninterview him.<\/p>\n
HURIWA also recalled that when the correspondent reportedly told a member
\nof staff at the Abuja House, the official residence of the Nigerian High
\ncommissioner to the United Kingdom,\u00a0on Sunday\u00a0afternoon that he had come
\nto see the president, he replied: \u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, he\u2019s not here.<\/p>\n
The Rights group said it was instructive that the Metropolitan police
\ncalled in to arrest the media worker simply observed that there was
\nnothing untoward about the presence of the reporter which made them to
\nrefuse to harass the media worker as originally contemplated by the
\ntyrannical Embassy officials in the Nigerian United kingdom High
\ncommission in London.<\/p>\n
“This should serve as a lesson for the Nigerian officials to know that in
\nconstitutional democracies the freedom of the press is not muzzled unduly
\nunlike in the primitive backyards known as African continent whereby
\ndissenting voices and the independent media are constantly under violent
\nattacks by state sponsored armed thugs wearing police uniforms and
\nserviced with tax payers’ money.”<\/p>\n
On the corruption going on in the Nigerian Embassy in Canada the Rights
\ngroup said it has become a dangerous pattern replicated in most embassies
\nof the country around the World that officials subject our citizens to
\nuntold hardship and are engaging in well contrived bribery schemes meant
\nto extort them of their hard earned resources in the course of seeking to
\nobtain valid travelling Nigerian international passport.<\/p>\n
HURIWA calls on Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Mr. Yakubu
\nDogara to wade in and ensure that Nigerian Embassies are rid of corrupt
\npractices that have become deeply entrenched.<\/p>\n
HURIWA has also asked that the National Assembly through a binding
\nlegislation directs the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC)
\nand the Independent Corrupt practices and allied offences commission
\n(ICPC) to post at least two investigative but non-compromising staff to
\nkey Embassies of Nigeria abroad to battle the scourge of corruption and
\neconomic crimes by diplomats by monitoring and recommending the recall,
\nprosecution and punishment in Nigeria of corrupt diplomats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A leading pro-democracy and non-governmental organization-\u00a0HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA)\u00a0has described as shameful and reprehensible the reported harassment of a Journalist of The Guardian Newspaper by officials of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n