…cautions journalists to avoid sensational report

BY LAIDE AKINBOADE

ABUJA-Ahead of commencement of the general elections tomorrow, the Federal Government has warned media organisations in the country against announcing results of elections until the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, released the authenticated ones.

Information and Communications Minister, Mr Labaran Maku, who gave the warning while addressing newsmen on the elections yesterday, urged journalists to avoid sensationalism in their report.

Mr. Maku, while advising media practitioners to ensure that only INEC’s certified results were announced to avoid causing confusion during the exercise, said “our electoral infrastructure is still a challenge, the media, both local and international, can monitor the voting but please do not announce results based on assumption before INEC because there could be contradictory results which may cause chaos.”

Allays fear of violence

Speaking further, the minister allayed fears of any violence during the election, adding that no threat in this period of election would disrupt the election.

He said:  “The only threat we are afraid of is sensational reporting. In fact, it constitutes more threat to the election than any other form of threat.

“For example, a reporter proclaiming the result of an elections that are not true, claiming that there has been a past standard that this is the person that must win a particular place when they do not have information of what is on ground, or a foreign reporter using a local medium that has decided that this is the candidate that must win.”

INEC has 130,000 polling units

In its remarks, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced that it now had 130,000 polling units across the nation.

Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who was represented by the Commission’s Director of Information, Mr. Solomon Soyebi, said for journalists to be able to cover the elections, he must be fully accredited by the commission.

NBC bans political campaign on Radio, TV 24hrs to elections

Meanwhile, the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Engr. Yomi Bolarinwa, has announced the banning of political campaigns on any radio and television stations in Nigeria 24 hours to the commencement of the National Assembly election.

Bolarinwa said any broadcast station which announced election result not certified by INEC would be sanctioned.

According to him, “the campaigning period is virtually over, and we are in the era of election proper.” Quoting sections 5210 and 5211 of the Nigerian Broadcasting code,  Bolarinwa said “a station, shall not at electioneering time, broadcast the collated form of votes obtained by different polling stations to project or speculate that one candidate is doing better or leading or doing worse than his opponent. 

“Section 5011 states that a station shall broadcast election result or declaration of the winner of an election only as announced by the authorised electoral officer for the election.”

The NBC boss, who advised broadcast stations to wait for INEC to declare election results before broadcasting such results, warned that any radio or television station that violates the order would be sanctioned. He, therefore, stated that political campaigns would commence after the National Assembly election.