Security chiefs uncover plots to disrupt 2019 elections – Presidency
Heads of security agencies said they have uncovered plots by some groups to disrupt the processes leading to the 2019 general elections.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement yesterday, quoted the security chiefs as saying this at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja, during an interactive meeting with owners and decision makers in the media.
He listed the security chiefs that spoke as the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura; the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufa’i Abubakar and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin.
Shehu said they warned the media against activities of some unregistered groups that had lately been active in trying to undermine critical institutions, such the law-enforcement agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said the security heads also called for closer cooperation from the media to prevent terrorists and radical ideologies directed from abroad from undermining the ongoing efforts to restore security in parts of Nigeria, facing the challenges of terrorism, economic sabotage, criminality, farmers-herdsmen clashes and the spread of illegal weapons.
He said they also, in the midst of the debate over the right to freedom of expression and the government’s efforts to ensure that the digital space and the mass media generally do not become a playground for terrorism and destabilization, assured that they would maintain a balance between openness and national security.
The presidential spokesman said the security chiefs, however, called on media owners and practitioners to walk the fine balance between openness on one hand and national security on the other.
He said the security situation in the country was within the control of the government and that this could be helped, where the media reduced sensation from their daily coverage.
Shehu quoted the security chiefs as saying “Our state of national security is not as bad as it is painted by the media.” The National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) has given the Federal Government a 30 day ultimatum to recall all resident doctors at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), whose appointments were unjustly terminated since 2014.
The doctors in a communiqué yesterday also gave the Federal Government a 30 day ultimatum to recall all resident doctors at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia whose appointments were terminated since May 2017.
The 30-day ultimatum which begins Monday, April 2 was issued to the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health and the management of JUTH.
The communiqué which was signed by the president of the association, Dr Ugochukwu Chinaka, secretary general, Dr Osinachukwu Nnadi, and Publicity and Social Secretary, Dr Ugochukwu Eze, also gave the same ultimatum to the Federal Government to pay all emoluments of the affected doctors in full.
The association had held a meeting in Abuja, where they deliberated on the issues affecting resident doctors in Nigeria particularly Residency Training Programme (RTP) in JUTH.
The association said that the Federal Ministry of Health had released a circular on the duration of the Residency Training Programme on July 18, 2014 but that the management of JUTH was yet to recognize the circular and therefore not implementing it.