Buhari Warns Personal Aides to Steer Clear of Media Matters 30 Apr 2015

Buhari Warns Personal Aides to Steer Clear of Media Matters

30 Apr 2015

 Buhari

•   AIT: We look forward to healthy relationship with president-elect

ByOnyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja


The president-elect of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari, has instructed all his staff, including the security personnel attached directly to him, to steer clear of all dealing with the media, and leave all media activities to his official media team.

In a statement released in Abuja Wednesday by the Directorate of Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Buhari aligned himself with the pronouncement of his party, the APC which had earlier expressed disagreement with the temporary barring of the Africa Independent Television (AIT) from covering his activities.

“I would like everyone to henceforth stay within his/her defined area of responsibility,” Buhari said.
The president-elect added that his media team should be left to deal with their media colleagues as they best knew how.

According to the statement, Buhari was neither consulted nor informed about the barring of AIT, and only became aware of the matter after the public uproar it generated.

“The time of ‘Change’ has come,” he said, adding that
“and we must avoid making the same mistakes that the outgoing government made.”

Meanwhile, Daar Communications Plc, the parent company of AIT, has disclosed that it is looking forward to a progressive and healthy relationship with the incoming administration.

  It added that it hoped the rights and freedom of the media would not be impeded in the discharge of its collective duties and responsibilities.

In a statement made available to THISDAY, the management  company said AIT, from its inception, had always strived to ensure it provided the public with all the facts and angles of any issue without bias and the same opportunities were provided to all parties, which contested the 2015 general election.

The statement read: “The justification for this action has made it necessary to officially respond to this regrettable development. By Section 22 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ‘The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people’”

“We consider it a worrisome development if ‘security and family concerns’ are used as a justification for censoring AIT or any other media organisation from covering and reporting the activities of the president-elect, his incoming administration or any other public officer.

“We wish to state categorically that the allegation of ‘security issues’ against our organisation is not an issue that the appropriate security agencies should view lightly. We want this incident appropriately investigated.  We have never and shall never be involved in any security activities that will compromise state institutions, personalities or any other interest whatsoever.