HURIWA Condemns Smear And Fabricated Media Terrorism Against Tukur Buratai
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Prominent Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned what it described as orchestrated media terrorism by a section of bloggers and citizens journalists targeting the person and character of the former Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai who is presently an Ambassador representing the good people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Benin Republic.
HURIWA which is also a media affiliated coalition of activists expressed dismay that an online newspaper that is based in a civilised clime where rule of law is prominent like the United States of America can persistently avail her platform for use by character assasinators, political hoodlums who would cook up story or try to bandy the name of the erstwhile Army Chief to any sort of investigative activities of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or the Independent Corrupt Practices Practices and other offences Commission (ICPC) since Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai retired voluntarily from the Nigeria Army after serving for over 35 years, 5 of which he was at the war fronts on the war on terrorism at the risks of his own precious life.
“We in HURIWA read a recent publication on webpage of sahara reporters titled “EXCLUSIVE: Anti-graft Agency, ICPC Uncovers Billions In Cash Meant For Arms, Ammunition To Fight Boko Haram In Abuja Home Of Ex-Chief Of Army Staff, Buratai”which was published on23/06/2022.
“We as a civil Rights body made up of lots of investigators and media workers with some of the finest investigative sources embedded in Federal and state government agencies, we can categorically confirm and attest to what the legal counsel of the retired military General said and also the ICPC has issued a statement distancing itself from the allegations that the house it invaded belonged to the erstwhile Army Chief.”
“We in HURIWA are hereby encouraging the former military chief to file a suit in court to stop these vindictive media campaigns of terrorism which are funded by a top security Chief working in the Presidency for political and selfish reasons”.
HURIWA recalled that the Lawyer to the retired General said as follows: “I have gone through the said Publication and have interfaced with Ambassador T.Y.Buratai and can authoritatively say the content of the publication is false, concocted and malicious.
“It is on record that on or about 5th April 2018 President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the purchase of equipment worth $1bn for the military through the Ministry of Defence.It is a fact that first batch of Six Super Tucano fighter jets arrived Nigeria July 22, 2021 while final batch of the 12 A-29 Super Tucano fighter jets arrived October 18, 2021. No Arms fund is ever missing contrary to some previous mischievous publications.
“For the records no such amount (#850M or any similar sum) was found with Ambassador Buratai nor does he have any Aide bearing such name. Ambasador Buratai has no office or house in Wuse Abuja(address not supplied by SR) nor does he have any bulletproof cars, BMW, G-Wagon (Particulars of vehicle not also supplied by SR) worth N450m and neither is ICPC investigating any such.
“We view this as an orchestrated act aimed at tarnishing the image of LT General T.Y Buratai and we shall take all legal steps to hold the publishers accountable for such grievious character assassination on the image of LT.T.Y Buratai”, the lawyer had said.
HURIWA said that it is also working on getting media practitioners “to respect the basic tenets of journalism which is objectivity, truthfulness, accuracy and balance”, just as the rights group condemned “the practice of many online newspaper publishers behaving like Arms chair entrepreneurs by simply reposting stories put up by others even without the faintest effort to reach the persons or institutions being maligned before posting such information for their readers.”
HURIWA then appealed “to the Nigerian Union of Journalists and the Guild of Editors and the National Press Conference to roll out training programme for online publishers to educate them on the dangers of spreading fake news.”
