Bagudu Tasks NUJ On Fight Against Banditry

Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, yesterday, appealed to the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to support security agencies in their efforts to tackle insecurity, particularly banditry in the North-West.
He made the appeal during the inauguration of NUJ Kebbi Council held at the Presidential Lodge in Birnin Kebbi.
Bagudu said: “Please NUJ cooperate with the security agencies, I beg you in the name of God, nobody is directing you, nobody is censuring you but our security agencies, particularly in the Northwest, need support of the NUJ.
“People are paralysed with fear because of wrong reporting. I hear it every day, communities do it, social media in particular does it,” he said.
The governor empathised with security agencies,  particularly the police.
“Assuming that a report gets to a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) who had only 20 policemen in the division that about 200 suspected bandits are coming on motorcycles, what do you want the DPO to do?  To commit suicide?
“It is the same thing, whenever we write about insecurity, we must remember that it might make people to become more afraid than they need to be, “ he said.
The governor advised Nigerian politicians to borrow a leave from Kebbi NUJ which got its officers on consensus basis.
He said that one day Nigeria might be able to produce a president by consensus, instead of election.
In her speech, Kebbi Commissioner for Information, Hajiya Rakiya Tanko-Ayuba, urged journalists to imbibe the spirit of professionalism while discharging their lawful responsibilities.
The commissioner, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Alhaji Garba Hamisu, thanked the governor for assisting officials of the state chapter of the NUJ to attend the recent NUJ Delegates Conference which held in Umahia, Abia.
She urged the outgoing executives to support the new executives with useful advice, while urging the new executives to work closely with the old one.
Abdur-Razak Bello-Kaura, NUJ Zonal Secretary, Northwest told the new executive council that they have a very big task ahead of them.
He appreciated the members for exhibiting high sense of maturity, brotherliness and accommodation which,  he observed, had culminated into a peaceful, successful and united delegates conference in Kebbi.
Magistrate Isma’il Mungadi administered the oath of office on the newly elected executives who would run the affairs of the union for the next three years.
NAN also reports that the new executives included Hamza Galadima-Zuru from Kebbi Television Chapel as Chairman, Ahmed Idris from Correspondents’ Chapel as Secretary and Abubakar Attahiru from State Information Chapel as Assistant Secretary.
Others are Bello Sarki-Abubalar from Kebbi Radio, Treasurer, Junaidu Sani of Equity FM as Financial Secretary while the post of Auditor -General went to Imran Musa also of Equity FM.