Leading Civil Rights Advocacy Group- Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) has counselled the minister of information and culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed  to speak less about the ongoing terrorism in Nigeria or shut up totally because the half truths and propaganda he spews out often during his public speaking engagements constitute grave threats to National security and could make Nigerians with actionable intelligence not to trust government enough as to make disclosures. 

“The current administration has indeed put round pegs in square holes. The choice of Alhaji Lai Mohammed as the minister of Information and Culture when his public persona does not motivate or stimulate trust and public confidence is one of the grave mistakes made by President Muhammadu Buhari in the constitution of the Federal Cabinet. If a public referendum is to be conducted today amongst consumers of media contents in Nigeria especially Information emanating from the federal government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari,  it is very likely that almost 100% of those polled will give the feedback that Information emanating from the current holder of the office of the minister of Information and Culture are taken with pinch of salt and not a lot of public confidence is built by virtually all of the statements made so far by Alhaji Lai Mohammed.  This is why he has to be stopped from pouring fuel into the crises of terrorists attacks tearing down on the Nigerian Societal fabrics. Most of the statements about Islamic terrorists made by Alhaji Lai Mohammed convey the impression that the Federal Government has a lot to do with the daredevil activities of these terrorists especially the genre domiciled in North West of Nigeria made up essentially  of Fulanis”. 

In a media statement by the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group wondered why the minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed had to come out few days after the Chief of Defence Staff General Lucky Irabor gave stern warning to terrorists hibernating around the North West and those of them carrying out genocide of Christians in Southern Kaduna only for this minister of information to dilute the warning by the Defence chief by contradicting the military General on his threats to wipe out terrorists from the North West.  

HURIWA recalled that General Lucky Eluonye Onyenuchea Irabor had few days back handed down a stern rebuke to the terrorists by asserting that their days are numbered only for Lai Mohammed to once more begin his pampering of the terrorists by saying that the terrain where bandits operate contributes to making security operations difficult and that the operations to bomb the terrorists may not be necessary to avoid killing innocent people.

“How can terrorists wiping out populations, raping girls, raping people’s wives, attacking airport, shooting down military jet and crashing a fast moving train with many innocent passengers killed be said to be innocents? Lai Mohammed surely has his own ‘meaning’ of innocence.”

According to NAN, the minister said this on Saturday during a radio programme on Bond FM and stated thus: “We cannot just go with full force to bomb them or else the innocents living around them will be killed and we don’t want that to happen.” 

“HURIWA therefore thinks that part of the problems of not realising the objectives of fighting the war on terror is the mixed signals and body language that persons with confusing mission like Lai Mohammed will often always try to contradict military Generals each time they issue stern rebuke or warn terrorists even as the Rights group has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to ban Lai Mohammed from using public office to provide morale boost to Islamic terrorists by issuing contradictory statements to water down the instructions and statement of Generals who are the persons directly commanding the war on terror or is he carrying out a preplanned programme?,” HURIWA queried.

Relatedly, HURIWA faulted the declaration for office of President made by the Transportation minister Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi when the nation is still mourning those unlucky train passengers killed by terrorists in Kaduna on their way from Abuja just as nearly two hundred passengers are yet to be accounted for but the man who is incharge of this Transportation system in which innocent passengers were gruesomely murdered by terrorists overlooked by the Federal Government and allowed to roam around, has gone ahead to organise elaborate political ceremony to announce his intention to contest for office of President of Nigeria when in his little ministry of Transportation hundreds of innocent passengers attacked by terrorists are still in pains and many have died from the dereliction of duty displayed by the officials of the nation’s Transportation sector? This is shameful and heartless to put it mildly, says HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).

HURIWA thinks the timing was totally inappropriate for Nigeria’s transportation minister Rotimi Amaechi on Saturday to have declared his intention to contest for president in 2023.

The Minister declared thus: “I stand before you today to declare my intention and submit my application to serve as your next President,” Amaechi said at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Rivers State.

His declaration was witnessed by All Progressives Congress bigwigs including former national chairman Adams Osiomhole, Plateau State governor Simon Lalong, Senator Ali Ndume, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume and Idris Wase.

HURIWA however said the minister did not show enough remorse about the massive official negligence that occasioned the killings of scores of train passengers just as it amounted to dancing on the graves of those innocent souls killed by North West terrorists for the Transportation minister to be seen using public facilities to dance around and then announce that he will run for office even when train passengers numbering over 200 are at the risks of being killed by the terrorists who took them off the publicly owned train to the forests only because the Federal Government has abdicated her constitutional duty of protection of lives and property of citizens.