Buhari Laments Foreign Media Coverage of #EndSars Protests

  

President Muhammadu Buhari has attacked some foreign media organizations for the manner of coverage of the Lekki shootings and the EndSars uprising in the country. 

The President in a meeting with governors at the State House, Abuja on Tuesday, criticized the CNN and BBC for dwelling too much on civilian casualties at the Lekki Toll Plaza and other centres of the protests without giving adequate attention to the number of security agents that were killed and the police stations  that were destroyed. 

The CNN has been in a running battle with the Nigerian government over its investigative report which established that the soldiers who invaded Lekki Toll Plaza fired live bullets at unarmed protesters and that there were many civilian casualties after the incident. 

The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, has however denied such casualties, saying there were no corpses anywhere to confirm the claim. 

The Minister had also accused the CNN of unprofessionalism and threatened to sanction the news organisation. 

CNN said it stood with its story, which analysed live bullets found at the Toll Gate and linked them to the ones the Nigerian military has been using for years. 

When the issue of EndSars protest came up at the parley with the governors,  President Buhari sounded a strong warning about a reoccurrence of the violence that followed the demonstrations. 

“We do not stop anyone from demonstrating, but you don’t set up roadblocks and smash windscreens. Which government will allow that?’’ he asked. 

President Buhari argued that the foreign press coverage of the violence was not balanced, citing specifically the CNN and BBC, for omitting the number of policemen killed, police stations that were razed, and the prisons that were thrown open for inmates to escape.

“I was disgusted by the coverage, which did not give attention to the policemen that were killed, the stations that were burnt, and prisons that were opened. They said we are all at fault. We don’t have the sympathy of anyone. We are on our own," he lamented. 

President Buhari said violent demonstrations will no longer be allowed, adding: “democracy does not mean confusion or lack of accountability.’’