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Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) on Wednesday chided the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, for labelling the terror alerts by the United States and United Kingdom, warning of possible terrorist attacks in Abuja, and parts of the country as “unverified and misleading”.
The group noted that instead of developing superior anti-terrorist strategies to thwart the impending attacks by marauders on the country’s political capital, the Buhari administration adopted a defensive stance by criticizing the intelligence of the British and American embassies here in Nigeria, and creating the false impression that the country is secure.
Persecondnews reports that Mohammed had on October 25 said the worst is over as far as insecurity is concerned in Nigeria.
The minister who stated this at a Ministerial Session at the ongoing UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy Week, added that the military and other security agencies were up to the task of protecting Nigerians and non-citizens.
A statement by the National Coordinator, HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, accused the minister of churning out untrutg and propaganda about the security situation in the country under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
“It is of note that even the the Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police Force did not disregard the terror alerts by the UK and US, but rather urged residents of the Abuja metropolis and Nigerians in general to remain calm.
“However, Minister Lai Mohammed came up with his usual misleading defence that Nigeria is safer than before, which is a blatant lie. The statistics of terrorist attacks this year alone showed that all the claims by Minister Mohammed and members of Buhari’s cabinet are falsehoods.
“Minister Lai Mohammed in a characteristic manner has misled Nigerians for seven years, lying that terrorists are defeated but terrorists went ahead to attack a Kaduna-Abuja train on March 28, 2022, killed scores, kidnapped over 100 passengers and held them hostages for over six months before their controversial release earlier in October.
“The same terrorists invaded the Kuje prison in Abuja on July 5, 2022, and freed over 600 inmates including hardened terrorists who are still at large. In August, in broad day light, terrorists ambushed and killed some personnel of the Presidential Guards Brigade in Abuja.
“The Owo massacre of over 40 Catholics during a Sunday service in Ondo State on June 5, 2022, is still fresh in the minds of their families and conscientious individuals.
“Under Buhari’s government in the last seven years, no fewer than 53,418 Nigerians lost their lives to terrorists and killer herdsmen between May 29, 2015 and October 15, 2022, according to a data by the Nigerian Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations of the United States of America.
“Yet, Minister Lai Mohammed has the effrontery to tell Nigerians that terrorists are technically defeated. The lies have failed and the Federal Government and its propaganda machineries should quit the lies and the façade,” the statement said given to Persecondnews said.
Advising Buhari to cut short his South Korea trip, HURIWA said he should rather come back home to coordinate Nigeria’s response to the terror alerts.
It added:”The disregard and the downplaying of intelligence by the present government is at the core of our woes as a people. A responsible government should be preparing effective response and how to forestall terror attacks and not defending the indefensible.
“Like former Chief of Army Staff, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, said, Nigeria is being brought to ruin by heavily armed ‘useless’ criminals and it may take self-defence to drive out country’s common ‘enemy’ else Nigeria will be finished.”
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