GIFT ROBERTS
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has insisted that nobody was killed during EndSARS protests in Lagos.
The minister also restated his attacks on Amnesty International and CNN over their reports that claimed several people were killed during the October 20 attack on EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos by the Nigerian Army.
Mohammed spoke on Friday when he featured on TVC New’s This Morning programme.
He said, “I think Amnesty International is gradually becoming irritant with its misinformation. At times I wonder whether Amnesty International’s aim is to destabilize Nigeria. Otherwise how do you explain their activities in Nigeria?
“In the first instance, Amnesty international like most of these other NGO’s have refused to offer evidence that indeed people were shot dead at the Lekki tollgate on the 20th of October, 2020.
“The truth of the matter is that a group of NGO’s led by Amnesty International has been dispensing fake news of what transpired at the tollgate and if they have information (on the people who were killed), they should come forward with it.”
The minister further said that AI “needs to stop its double standards.”
Accusing CNN also of double standards, Mohammed said, “When it’s in the United States, they’re domestic terrorists but when it’s in Nigeria, they’re termed, innocent protesters.
He said, “Same CNN said nothing about the suspension of President Donald Trump’s social media accounts, but accused us of stifling freedom of speech in Nigeria.
“Only one police officer was killed in the Capitol Hill and it was termed “An Insurrection” but 37 police officers when brutally murdered in Nigeria, yet their killers were termed freedom fighters.”
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Speaking on the Transparency International Ranking of Nigeria in its 2020 Corruption Index, the minister argued that “40 percent of the scoring methodology in the Transparency International’s anti-corruption rating is centered around the ease of doing business in Nigeria.”
He said for that reason, the Nigerian Government had “embarked on reforms in that sector.”