The Newspaper proprietors association of Nigeria (NPAN), at the weekend deliberated on the controversial bill, described as unfortunate a situation in which the federal government is seeking to nail the press at a time the information space is being opened up for public engagement .

In a seven – paragraphed statement issued by the association’s President Chief Ajibola Ogunshola, his deputy, Mallam kabiru Yusuf and the publicity secretary Frank Aigbogun and made available to newsmen in Lagos, said the introduction of the “stone age” bill by the chairman, house committee on Nigerians in the Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erawa came as a schock to media practitioners.

The press statement reminded the promoter and prime mover of the retrogressive bill that it would be an injustice on the part of the Federal Government to gag a vibrant press.

The statement further revealed that “NPAN” cannot see the logic in this bill, which in its design seeks to replace the existing Nigeria Press Council Decree with the Nigerian Press and Practice of Journalism Council”.

As efforts before it, this bill begins on the faulty and diabolic premise that the federal government should know and seek to abridge the right of the people to information and to hold their leaders accountable to those who elected them.

“In 1999, the association instituted a case at the Federal High Court, Lagos, seeking to abrogate the Nigerian Press Council Decree because it was our view that its provisions are inimical to the smooth functioning of a free press”.

“That suit NO: FHC/L/1324/99 is still pending before the court and if would now seem that the promoters of their vexatious bill seek to make the final outcome of the suit a nullity”.

The body noted that the process to establish an ombudsman in collaboration with other stakeholders was on calling on Nigerians to rise in support of the process and the crusade against the passage of the “evil bill” and any other measures that seek to curtail their freedom of information.

It would appear that history is lost on the promoters of this bill because the press in Nigerian has always stood against any attempt to emasculate it, the statement posited.

It could be recalled that ever since the introduction of “the Nigerian Press and Practice of Journalism Council Bill” by the chairman of the House Committee on Nigerians in the Diaspora, the controversial bill has attracts a high level of criticism by Nigerians, home and Abroad calling on the House of Representative to step aside the evil bill and pass into law the right of the people to information.