Ekweremadu escaped assassination

ITRealms:

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Tuesday (17-11-15), escaped suspected assassination attempt, according to his special adviser on media, Mr. Uche Anichukwu, reports ITRealms.

He also said that the attempt occurred at about 10:00am between Apo Flyover and Dantata Construction Company’s yard, close to the Old Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) headquarters junction on his way to work.

Anichukwu equally said that the suspected assassins who operated in a tinted, white-coloured Mercedez Benz AMG E63 without a plate number, were chauffeured by a long-bearded light skinned foreigner, apparently a mercenary.

The vehicle, which was positioned by the Apo Bridge, on noticing that the Deputy President of the Senate’s convoy took the right turn to join the Nnamdi Azikiwe Expressway instead, made a turn.

“The occupants attempted to attack the convoy, but were blocked. The driver violently broke into the convoy and they made several frantic attempts to attack the Senator’s official car,” he said. 

@George Omehah/GEE

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Buhari won't demand 'killing' of stories - Adesina

ITRealms:

The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has reassured Nigerians and media practitioners that his principal, would not request any journalist to ‘kill’ stories for him, reports ITRealms.

Speaking at the weekend at a dinner hosted the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), Adesina said that instead, the administration would encourage newsmen to run stories that will critically examine the workings of government and provide it with the way forward.

President of GOCOP, Mr. Malachy Agbo, was quoted in a press statement available to ITRealms as saying that Adesina gave this assurance on Thursday at a dinner held for him and other presidential spokesmen by the online publishers.

Agbo also said that at the dinner hosted by GOCOP members were the Senior Special Assistant on Media to President Buhari, Malam Garba Shehu, and the Senior Special Assistant in the Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande.

In his remarks, Adesina said the first thing the President told him when he assumed office was “Always tell me the truth,” stressing that Buhari was emphatic when he equally told him that as a General he loved to argue, but would always bow to superior arguments.

"The President told me 'Please do not fail to argue with me,'" Adesina who is one of GOCOP Trustees said, insisting that Buhari has vowed to run an open and transparent government so much that he would have nothing to hide and would have no cause to want to ask for any story to be ‘killed’.

Equally he revealed that the only thing Buhari asked is that for any news item, the Presidency should be allowed the opportunity to state its side before being putting same in the public domain or the going to press.

Adesina applauded the online publishers for coming together to form a group, advising GOCOP to look out for spoilers, gate crashers and those who might hide under the canopy of online publishing to damage the reputation of innocent public officers.

"There is a saying that one bad coin can spoil hundreds of other coins. My advice is that you should not allow any of your members to use the platform to malign innocent people. You should also find a way of sanitising the social media practitioners who just sit in their bedrooms to churn out news without professional touch," he counselled.

Also speaking, Garba Shehu expressed thanks to GOCOP for the support they gave him when he handled the media and publicity department of All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council as Director.

According to him, the APCPPC was the poorest in terms of resources, “but the richest in terms of people’s goodwill. And the online publishers were the greater part of that process."

Similarly, Laolu Akande, acknowledged the contributions of online media and social media in the actualisation of the Buhari Presidency. 

He advised Nigerians to adopt the government as their own because “this is the change we have been talking about.”

Welcoming GOCOP guests earlier, Agbo assured the presidential spokesmen of the support and cooperation of the members, even as he appealed to them to always make themselves available for any news item that requires clarification.

He was confident that members of GOCOP, who are veterans in the journalism profession, would continue to support them with prayer to achieve success in their assignments.

Several other GOCOP members who spoke at the occasion commended the presidential media team for recognising the important role of the online media in modern information dissemination and appealed to them to keep it up.

+ITRealms DSA +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

 
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GOCOP dinner: L-R: Senior Special Assistant on Media to the President, Malam Garba Shehu; Special Adviser on Media to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina; and the President, Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), Malachy Agbo, at the dinner for the presidential spokesmen. 

Boko Haram takes Buhari to Obama

ITRealms

Details of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to the United States of America have emerged as the President’s Special Adviser on Media, Femi Adesina said the official visit will “strengthen and intensify bilateral and international cooperation against terrorism in Nigeria and West-Africa.”

ITRealms reports that threat posed by Boko Haram militants is expected to top the agenda. According to the statement, President Buhari will meet with the United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, and the Secretary of Defense, Robert Work.

The two presidents, along with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, ITRealms gathered, will also likely discuss proposed political and economic reforms in Nigeria aimed at ending widespread corruption. The four-day trip is Buhari's first to Washington since being elected in March and taking office in May in a landmark peaceful transition of power in Nigeria.

Buhari will meet with West African diplomats, World Bank executives, and members of the U.S. Congress.  He is scheduled to hold a town hall meeting with Nigerians on Tuesday.

U.S. relations with Nigeria, ITRealms reports, soured over failures by the government and military  to locate more than 200 schoolgirls, most of them Christian, who were kidnapped by Boko Haram from the northern town of Chibok in April 2014. The abduction led to international condemnation and a campaign to “Bring Back Our Girls” that reached as far as the White House.

The former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan was reportedly angered by the U.S. refusal to sell his government helicopter gunships and retaliated by halting a U.S. military training program. However, relations between the two countries are expected to improve under Buhari, a 72-year-old former military dictator who has pledged allegiance to democracy and promised to address U.S. concerns.

Buhari’s visit to Washington barely two months after taking office is said to be indication of  the  importance the U.S. places on relations with Nigeria. Obama extended the invitation immediately after Buhari was declared the winner of the March election.

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Adesina urges online publishers on credibility, as Haruna stresses importance

ITRealms:

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has urged Nigerian online publishers to guarantee the credibility of their publications so as to bolster the future of online media, reports ITRealms.

Speaking as a guest at the official unveiling of an online newspaper, Sundiata Post in Abuja Tuesday, Mr. Adesina noted that the call is to assure the sector is not awash by unenthusiastic publishers.

“There is this saying that bad coins tend to drag good coins out of circulation. So, if we leave online publishing for the bad ones, the good ones cannot make a difference,” he said, stressing that the good, the bad and the ugly among online publishers do exist, but is need to have more of the good ones, because it would be for the betterment of the country.

In his keynote address, the former Chief Press Secretary to General Abdullsalami Abubakar, Mallam Mohammed Haruna, while dwelling on “Has Online Journalism Come of Age?” noted that the invention of the Internet had transformed journalism into a truly all-comers’ trade.

Haruna said the question has become imperative due to the assumed conflict between online media’s speed and old media’s core value of accuracy.

“This assumption is largely false. Depending on how much in a rush one is, there has always been conflict between accuracy and speed since the emergence of mass media in the 19th century. The difference is that the new media, in its rush to be in real time in the news, seems more wired to sacrifice accuracy on the altar of speed than the old media,” he said.

The implication, Mallam Haruna pointed out is that online journalism tends to be less reliable than the offline journalism and on this ground, it could be argued that online journalism is less mature than the mainstream journalism.

Chairman of the occasion and the Director-General, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Emeka Mba, defined online journalism as a media for the coming generation.

Represented by the Director, Public Affairs at NBC, Mr. Awwalu Salihu, the DG equally urged online publishers to focus carving integrity for themselves alongside accuracy and professionalism in order to have the buy-in of the society and its needs.

In his remarks, the Publisher, Sundiata Post Online Newspaper, Mr. Max Amuche, said that credibility and professionalism would continue to be the catchphrase of Sundiata.

As said by him, the publishers under the aegis of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) came together to make certain that the activity of the media is self-regulated.

Also speaking, the National Vice Chairman of GOCOP, Musikilu Mojeed, said proprietors of online media in the country are accomplished professionals, some of who rose from mere reporter to topmost management positions in some of Nigeria’s leading dailies.

GOCOP, Mr. Mojeed said, has been busy in the past months training its members on ethics and the latest trend in the media industry.

He disclosed plans by GOCOP to soon name charlatans who pass off as online newspaper publishers.

Mojeed emphasised that the GOCOP is partnering relevant Nigerian authorities to descend heavily on thieves who plagiarise the work of its members, even as he reiterated the determination of the organization to sanitise the online media industry.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Abuja


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