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Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed has visited TVC, The Nation to access damages.
Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has visited the affected Television Continental (TVC), and the Nation Newspaper, in Lagos State, over the aftermath of the ENDSARS protest attack.
Lai Mohammed stressed that his visit to the two media organizations was to commiserates with the management and staff over the recent attack.
The Minister, who was accompanied to the affected media outfits by the Director-General, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Dr. Mansur Liman; Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria, Mr. Buki Ponle; Executive Secretary, Nigerian Press Council, Mr. Francis Nwosu; Registrar/CEO of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo and the Acting Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, noted that there is no justification whatsoever for the attack.
The Minister described the attack on the affected media houses as an attack on democracy and also free of speech that always enjoyed during the democratic process.
He said, I strongly and unreservedly condemned the attack on the media houses, stressed the attempt by the arsonists to stifle press freedom has failed woefully.
Alhaji Mohammed, expressed his displeased over the attack, but said that there was every reason to thank God that no life was lost to the attack, noted that the attack on the Nation is not just an attack on the Vintage Press, it’s an attack on the free press, it’s an attack on democracy because there can be no virile and robust democracy without a free media.
The Minister maintained that an attack on the Nation or any media house is a direct attack on freedom of speech and also democracy.
Muhammed stressed that those that set ablaze the media houses can best be described as the arsonists, while their actions were a premeditated attempt to silence the voice of reason and stifle press freedom.
Alhaji Lai Muhammed, however, expressed his delight that a few days after the attack, the two media houses bounced back, a development which he described as a sign of the commitment and sheer determination by the organization’s management and staff to continue to promote democracy in the country.
The minister commended the doggedness of the management of the two affected media houses for the fact that within a few days they were able to return to the stand and on air.
He said, “I think it’s a big blow to the attackers, who thought they could shut out the light of press freedom,”
However, The Chairman of The Nation Newspaper, Mr. Wale Edun, the Managing Director of TVC, Mr. Andrew Hanlon, took their time to take the Minister round the premises of the two affected media organizations.