Don’t censor media, PDP warns FG

Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday warned the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, against censorship of the media just to ensure that it downplay the failures of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government.
It was contained in statement issued by the party National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, which claimed that the APC federal government is planning to gag the media.
The statement described as pathetic, noted that no amount of censorship or bandying of false figures would stop Nigerians from reflecting on the real state of affairs in our country today.
“It is scandalous that the federal government is attempting to slander the media and sway it with cooked-up figures, forgetting that media practitioners are also Nigerians, who are direct witnesses and victims of the woes of the APC misrule.
“Nigerians were shocked to watch the Minister of Information attempting to censor the media and sell unverifiable statistics to the media when a TV Continental (TVC) team visited his office on Tuesday.
“They know that the torrents started buffeting the nation from May 29, 2015 and no amount of propaganda and futile efforts to censor the media by the APC will change the facts.
“While we note the minister’s snap that the media should contextualize their reporting, we ask; how else should the media contextualize the sudden collapse of the economy with the naira tumbling from N197/I USD in 2015 when PDP handed over power, to N360-N400/1USD, without placing the blame at the door steps of President Muhammadu Buhari and his dysfunctional APC?
“How else should the media contextualize the fact that under the Buhari Government, over 8 million Nigerians lost their jobs between 2016 to 2017, 16 million were unemployed, 18 million more were underemployed, while another 27.44 million refused to work in 2016 for various reasons related to frustration in the polity?
“How should the media contextualize the soaring costs of food, the rise in inflation rate from the N13.7 percent in May 2015 to the current 15.37%; the rise in fuel price from N86.50 under the PDP to N300-N400 per litre under the APC; the escalating of our foreign debt to $15.2bn, representing a 40 percent increase under President Buhari’s three years in office in addition to the pile-up of domestic debt which has scared away many contractors”.

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