Facts emerged recently that he allegedly gave the directive for journalists to be chased out of the press centre at the Presidential Lounge of the Murtala Muhammed Airport,MMA, Lagos since Sunday, February 5.
Azazi’s travail is coming barely three months after he alleged dispatched a high ranking Nigeria Air Force ,NAF,officer with a Presidential aircraft to the Presidential Lounge of the Murtala Muhammed Airport,MMA,Lagos to chase out Journalists at the lounge, who he alleged are security threat
“The extent of violence did not increase until the declaration by the current president that he was going to contest,” Azazi had said while delivering a speech at the South-South Economic Summit in Asaba , where the current security challenge of the country was discussed.
At the moment working tools belonging to about 35 journalists which include laptops, camera, modems among others are still been locked up as a result of the directive by the NSA.
Attempts by journalists to get their tools from the press centre at the lounge did not yield any result, as the heavily armed Nigeria Air Force personnel manning the entrance at the lounge are said to have been instructed by the NSA not to allow journalists to pick their belongings.
It was learnt that reports by journalists at the lounge that the CCTV allegedly installed by the office of the NSA is not working did not go well with the embattled security chief, most especially when it was also reported by journalists at the lounge that armed robber invaded the car park at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport , Lagos, carting away $600,000 about N92 million and the CCTV was unable to detect the robbers.
Attempt by one of the journalists to see the Head of Protocol, Mr. Afolabi Oduniyi who was among those who collaborated with the State Security Service SSS to allegedly write a phantom security report about the journalists at the lounge was denied, as the SSS ordered the NAF men at the gate not to allow him and that if he attempt the use of force he should be shot.
Presently, as a result of the purported directive by Azazi which was executed by a senior NAF officer, who claimed to be the head of Presidential Fleet then, journalists who have been at the centre in the past 30 years ,even under military dictators are now forced to carry out their constitutional duties under trees.
This is a man who was given the enormous responsibility of ensuring the security of lives and properties in the country, but instead he turned against journalists doing their lawful duties by chasing them out of their secretariat at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport.
Even the Boko Haram assault on the media first started with the Azazi onslaught.
His action on the Journalists was not challenged by anybody because it bothers on security matter.
For Azazi to come out openly to blame the ruling party that employed him for his inefficiency in stamping out the threats of Boko Haram is not something that should be pardoned.
He has an upper hand against the Journalists by chasing them out of their secretariat, but could not have the same upper hand in chasing out Boko Haram out of Nigeria.
Azazi in recent time has involved himself in controversies in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgents; he was quoted to have said it was difficult to police the entire country at the same time, though he denied the statement saying he was misquoted.
Even some security experts in Lagos have criticized Azazi for not doing his job well, they maintained that even in developed countries, National Security Advisers are neither seen or heard from except in few unavoidable cases, but in the case of Azazi, he chose to be granting media interviews and appearing in forums and events to speak on his failure to tackle the insecurity in the country attributing it to the internal wrangling in the PDP.
Some of the security experts have called on him to resign honourably and save the nation from further bloodshed.
It would be recalled that various moves has been made to appeal to Azazi to open the centre for Journalist which he has frustrated.
Firstly, the national president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists ,NUJ, Garba Mohammed decried the continued lock out of Airport and aviation Correspondents from the Press Centre on the purported orders from above on spurious allegations, including threat to national security, leveled against the reporters.
This was followed by a threat by NUJ to withdraw journalists from covering any activities of Government in Lagos State and the country in general over the closure of the press centre at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos by the Protocol Department of the airport.
Even a statement signed by the National secretary of NUJ, Shuaibu Usman Leman in Abuja and made available to journalists described the closure as an attempt to muzzle the press by the Federal Government and drew the attention of the Government to the continuous oppression of the media by its security agencies.
The NUJ in the statement stated further that, ‘’the continued closure of the Media Centre at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos by the Nigerian authorities is a further confirmation of the continued fears being expressed by the union that the Nigerian State is becoming increasingly hostile to the media.
Similarly, the Chairman of the Joint Aviation Trade Union Forum, JATUF, Comrade Benjamin Okewu also condemned the locking out of aviation Journalists in Lagos by the SSS and the protocol department of the presidential lounge in Lagos on orders from Azazi, calling for the revocation of such orders.
The forum which comprises of all aviation unions including the Air Transport Senior Staff Services of Nigeria, National Union of Air Transport Employees and the National Association of Airlines and Pilots Employees among others while condemning the act in all ramifications observed that it was wrong to single out Journalists in Lagos for such directive.
According to Okewu, this development is bad because our democracy seems to drifting towards military rule, adding that even in Aso Rock there are Journalists whose presence are not considered as security threat to the government, including the fact that the Senior Special Assistant to the president is also a Journalist.
In the same vein, a media rights advocate and executive director of KezKonsult, Okezie Anoforum also berated the Federal Government for shutting down the media centre at the presidential wing of the MurtalaMuhammed Airport, Lagos.
Anoforum described the government’s action as “insensitive” and the “worst” since the return to democracy in 1999.
He noted that instead of the government to tackle the real threats to national security, it had embarked on chasing shadows and using the press as the scapegoat.
It would be recalled that on Sunday, February 5, the press centre that had been used by airport correspondents for over 30 years was sealed up by the protocol department and SSS attached to the lounge on the orders from Azazi and journalists barred from having access into the premises.
Equipment locked up includes table top computers, internet modems, cameras, tape recorders and 30 laptops.
No comments:
Post a Comment