PRNigeria has refuted claims in a recent media report that attacked its integrity and called the online newspaper ‘a military apologist for propaganda’.

The website has published news on military losses, successes, arrest/elimination of terrorists, attacks on personnel, civilians and towns by Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP).

In reactions to PRNigeria’s report on the killing of notorious bandit kingpin, Dogo Gide, some sources who spoke with Premium Times questioned the platform’s credibility.

In a statement on Monday, Editor-in-Chief, Yushau Shuaib said the news agency enjoys a good rapport with traditional and legacy media, covering public relations, crisis communication and intelligence analyses.

Shuaib stressed that its investigative and independent reports are not financed by the military.

“After an online medium mentioned PRNigeria as breaking the news on Dogo Gide’s death, they quoted one of their sources thus: “No reputable media organisation has reported the killing of Dogo Gide so far and no one has quoted any security source, so we assume he is not dead.

“Another claimed that the report by PRNigeria ‘is military propaganda.’ Also, another source, claimed that: ‘Mr Gide joined the Jumu’at prayers in Babbar Doka, in Dan Sadau district.’”

The Editor stressed the independence and uncompromising stance of PRNigeria on investigative and exclusive reports.

Shuaib said apart from winning international laurels on crisis communication due to uncompromised relationships with industry stakeholders, its security reports are not “financed bankrolled by the military.”

“While our practice does not discourage other parties from seeking to verify our fact-based news releases, we usually appreciate when this is done with the utmost professionalism and in a manner that’s sensitive to the integrity we have attained in the work we do.

“It is worrisome that egocentric information peddlers, who cannot back their statements up with concrete evidence in a way that fundamentally contradicts the releases of PRNigeria, are often sought by respected media houses and taken as gospel truth.

“As the Most Creative PR agency worldwide in 2020, we have never compromised our positions through unethical practices. We are so passionate about the national interest that we published our latest Book ‘101 Fake News on EndSARS’.

“In an age of irresponsible information dissemination, the book exposes the antics of enemies Nigeria’s corporate existence – rumour mongers, hate-speech merchants etc. It detects how several media houses goofed woefully by publishing fake reports on EndSARS, but later withdrew such from their platforms.

“While we appeal to fellow media houses to be wary of vested interests on security matters, who may have other motives that are not patriotic or altruistic, they should equally exercise caution on reports that could ‘de-market other platforms,” Shuaib noted.

Vanguard News Nigeria