Director-General,
State Security Service, Mr. Ekpenyong Ita, has said terrorists crave
media attention in order to intimidate and instil fear into people.
Declaring open a workshop for media
professionals at the Institute for Security Studies,Bwari, Abuja on
Monday, Ita explained that the objective of terrorist groups was to
maximise publicity for their attacks in order to have a larger than life
reputation.
He said, “Publicity is the oxygen craved
by terrorists. When they carry out attacks, they want as much publicity
as possible and when the media sensationalise such an attack, the
terror groups have achieved their objectives of getting wide media
publicity which is aimed at intimidating and installing fear into
people.”
He therefore urged journalists to avoid sensationalism as they provide information to the public.
The DG, who said many terrorist groups
pursue the interests of their sponsors, noted that nobody knows the
interests being pursued by Boko Haram members “as they do not represent
Muslims.”
According to him, terrorists often get
more attention from the media than security agencies that strive to
protect the nation from the evil machinations of such violent groups as
Boko Haram.
He added, “Acts of terrorism are
over-covered by the media while the activities of security agencies were
under-covered. Terrorists strive to project the interests of those
they are acting for but we don’t know the interest Boko Haram members
are fighting because they don’t represent Muslims.”
The Director-General, Nigerian Television Authority, Alhaji Musa Maiyaki, on the occasion called for a cordial relationship between the media and security agencies.
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