Petitioning the Nigerian Press Council, FEC deliberates on an alleged bogus story from Samoa

The Federal Executive Council FEC, met on Wednesday and discussed a report on the Samoa deal written by a national newspaper. The cabinet members strongly disapproved of the story.

Following the FEC, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, told reporters at the State House that a letter of complaint had already been sent to the Nigerian Press Council, the media ombudsman, to compel the newspaper to stop publishing false and misleading information.

According to him, several Nigerians have made various, completely untrue insinuations.

Remember how the media said in the article that the federal government had inked a contract that required Nigeria to support the rights of LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex) individuals?

Additionally, it stated that Nigeria would receive $150 billion for signing the agreement.

Signed on June 28 at the Organization of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) Secretariat in Brussels, Belgium, the pact is commonly known as the Samoa accord.

According to the agreement’s details, members of OACPCS and the European Union, along with their respective member states, are partners in this cooperation.

The agreement was signed on November 15, 2018, by 47 of the 79 OACPS nations and all 27 EU member states. Negotiations on the pact started in 2018.

The African Regional Protocol on the subject is divided into two sections: a framework for collaboration and areas of cooperation pertaining to, among other things, the protection of the environment and human rights, as well as inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

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However, Idris reacted angrily to the revelation, saying, “We have written to the Ombudsman to call the newspaper to order after the FEC deliberated on the Daily Trust report on the Samoa agreement and concluded that it was meant to mislead the people against the government.”

While the Tinubu-led administration reiterates its commitment to press freedom, we will wait for the ombudsman report and urge the press to report properly.

“The Tinubu administration is committed to promoting democracy in the nation, and they have no intention of stifling the press or acting in any way that may be interpreted as restricting the rights of media workers.

They ought to make sure that fake news doesn’t exist in Nigeria. For other Nigerians, the news has been psychologically damaging.