APC chief blames Nigerian media for unrests

A member of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Rotimi Fasakin Tuesday indicted the country’s pressmen of playing an underlying role in the nation’s unrest.

Fasakin appeared on Channels Television morning programme Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.

“You journalists are part of the problems of Nigeria,” he told his interviewers who asked him to speak on the Nigerian government handling of fatal attacks in some by suspected herdsmen in some states.

Fasakin accused the Nigerian media of deliberately slanting coverage of fatal attacks in some parts of the country to deliberately tarnish the reputation of the President Muhammadu Buhari.

“When killings are done in Zamfara, the Nigeria press say it is armed bandits. But when the killings are done in Plateau, Benue, Taraba they say it was Fulani herdsmen”, Fasakin said.

“It is deliberate because you know we have a Fulani president.

“The moment the journalists are doing the differentiation, it is not good for our country.”

Nigeria has seen increased fatal clashes between suspected herdsmen and farmers in states such as Benue, Plateau, Taraba and Yobe.

Nigeria’s President Muhammmadu Buhari, during a meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, said the killings were carried out by disbanded militias trained in Libya by Muammar Ghadaffi. He absolved herdsmen of any blame.

“These gunmen were trained and armed by Muammar Gadaffi of Libya. When he was killed, the gunmen escaped with their arms. We encountered some of them fighting with Boko Haram,” he said.

“Herdsmen that we used to know carried only sticks and maybe a cutlass to clear the way, but these ones now carry sophisticated weapons.”

In a recent meeting with Christian leaders from northern Nigeria, Buhari blamed politicians for stoking the attacks for “short-term political gains.”

The attacks fueled by ethnic, religious and political allegiances have killed thousands over several decades.

Analysts believe the killings which the Deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu said has become an ‘international embarrassment’ could become Nigeria’s biggest security concern, eclipsing Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency that has left at least 20,000 dead since 2009.