By Suzan Edeh

Bauchi— Governor Isa Yuguda of  Bauchi State has blamed a section of the media for allegedly fuelling the problem of insecurity in most parts of the country, through inaccurate reporting of events.

Yuguda said that events reported in the media were sentimental, pointing out that such inaccurate and subjective reports were not only overheating the polity but encouraging hatred among the citizens.

He spoke, yesterday during the 58th General Assembly of the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria, BON, at the Yankari Resort and Safari in Bauchi.

His words: “Everything about development is hinged around security, so it cannot be pushed under the carpet. If there is no security in a state, there can never be capital generation and where there is no capital generation, the crime rate will increase and security thereby threatened.

“This is the area where I feel the media have messed up because most of them are not adequately enlightened about what is causing insecurity. Many of them are ignorant of most cultures or tribes of a particular region they are reporting, hence they use derogatory statements like, Islamic terrorists, which is wrong because there is nowhere in the Koran, where Islam is associated with terrorism.”

Yuguda who described the media as the vehicle for maintaining security, however, lamented that it had aggravated the problem of insurgency by refusing to adhere strictly to the ethics of the profession.

“I can vividly recall when there was this rumour that the NYSC camp was attacked in Bauchi State, where over 50 corps members died.

“On the internet, the story was everywhere and it was a horrible experience for the state because the state was just recovering from a major crisis which was a fallout of the 2011 general elections, where some corps members lost their lives.

“The media tarnished the image of the state and heightened tension in such a way that the news was all over the country within 30 minutes. With this kind of scenario, how can we address insecurity?” Yuguda asked.

He noted that it was during his administration that the long awaited chiefdom was granted to the Sawaya ethnic group in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of the state after over 1000 lives were lost, adding that it was not a religious crisis as wrongly insinuated by the media, but a land dispute.

He then urged media organization, especially those in broadcasting, to change its mode of reportage of events so as to foster the bonds of unity among the people.