A rights group, Centre for Advancement of Peace, Security and Social Development (CAPSSD) has said the spate of highly sensational and promotional articles published in national dailies recently about security top officers in the country is a deliberate ploy to cause disaffection amongst leaders of various security agencies.
The CSO in a statement signed by its executive director, Mallam Mustapha Abubakar Funtua, cautioned that the trend if not quickly checked, will not only jeopardise the security of Nigeria but also set the officers and the units they represent up against each other and the enemy.
Abubakar Funtua said, “Our attention has been drawn to series of highly sensational and promotional articles published in national dailies recently, and as a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) that seeks to monitor and advocate for effective peace building and sustainable social development in the country, it has become imperative to raised the alarm over what we see as deliberate attempts to cause disaffection and endanger the synergy amongst Security chiefs and their foot soldiers across the country.
“We are appalled with the media coverage of sensitive personnel and units in our security architecture. The perpetrators of this act are intentional in causing disaffection amongst the security chiefs but have been hiding under the banner of promoting their targets. This is dangerous for our fragile security situation and must not be allowed to go unchecked.”
The CSO equally drew the attention of Nigerians to the fact that intelligence gathering and security operations are private and secret undertakings. Deliberately exposing the names of serving officers in missions and publishing details of their actions is tantamount with leaking classified information to the enemy.
The statement stressed that, “It has become necessary for the Army, the Police and other security agencies to tighten their grip over sensitive information as many people are now abusing the privilege that comes with free flow of information under the Freedom Of Information Act. Writing promotional articles about serving officers should therefore be considered as leakage of classified information and tagged treasonable.”
The CSO further called on the media to vet the information published through their platforms very well before allowing it to reach the public and enjoined the media to desist from creating the impression that only few persons or security agencies are working since security is a team work and cannot be effectively prosecuted by just one team or group of persons.
