Bayelsa Disowns Arrested Terrorists …Defends Public Information Management Bill

The Bayelsa State Government has dissociated itself from the nine suspected terrorists reportedly arrested in a building belonging to the state government in Ijora area of Lagos.

The Commissioner for Information, Mr Markson Fefegha, said in Yenagoa that the state government had no links with the suspects who used the abandoned building for their nefarious activities

Fefegha said last Thursday that further investigation by security agencies was necessary

He said: “our findings show that the abandoned building belongs to Bayelsa State. “The governor has directed that the building be demolished and a more befitting house built and put to use. “The government had dispatched a team of engineers to assess the state of the building. “So we have to await the report of the team sent to assess the situation.

Meanwhile,  The Bayelsa Government said that its proposed bill on public information management was geared at checkmating the excesses of journalists in the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr Markson Fefegha, said at a news conference in Yenagoa that the bill would give legal backing to the work of the committee on public information clarification.

Fefegha explained further that the committee’s work was to bridge the gap that existed in the flow of information between the government and the people.

He said that the proposed bill was aimed at bringing value re-orientation to the people in what they say with regard to overall well being of the state.

In his remark, the state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists Mr Tarinyo Akono, expressed concern over the spate of rumour peddling in the state.

He said that the union had planned to organise a public lecture to address the development before the State Government came up with the idea of a committee.

Akono assured media practitioners in the state that the bill, when passed into law, would in no way impinge on their professional responsibility to the society.

“I am a member of the committee; I can assure you that the bill is not in any way to checkmate journalists from doing their jobs.

“It is not also aimed to impinging on the freedom of the press,” he said.