The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has called for the sack of Agriculture Minister, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, and the Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The group said the duo were being economical with the truth in the discharge of their public functions, thereby polluting the innocent minds of Nigerian children even as disseminating false information violates the criminal code Act of Nigeria.
In a statement signed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA condemned Ogbeh for exposing the global image of Nigeria to disrepute by dishing out information on the rice industry of Thailand.
HURIWA charged President Buhari to at least suspend the Agriculture Minister from office and carry out further investigation within seven days on the veracity of his claims that Rice factories in Thailand closed down because the current government in Nigeria suddenly made rice production in Nigeria a big industry.
“We believe that Mr. President must suspend the Agriculture Minister pending further timely investigation and to order his sack eventually if contrary opinions alleging that he lied are proven as truth.
“The Nigerian law book even has legal sanction for providing false information and since the law is not a respecter of status or a class, the minister of Agriculture and information must be made to face the consequences of willful misinformation.”
Also, HURIWA stated that a report credited to Lai Mohammed that the Nigerian Air Force deployed 100 Military Jets to chase after the Boko Haram terrorists who abducted 104 girls from a science school in Dapche, Yobe state was publicly denied by the officials of the Chief of Air Staff’s media office who said contrary to the falsehood what was correct was 100 sorties and not 100 Jets.
“The current President has claimed to be a man of honesty and so Nigerians are disappointed that his cabinet members have lied to Nigerians in not less than 10,000 times documented in media reports with the current controversy involving the Agriculture and Information Ministers being the most disgraceful acts of alleged betrayal of truth. abd public trust and amounts to criminal violation.”
HURIWA recalled that Mr. Wattana Kunwongse, Ambassador of Thailand to Nigeria, had publicly denied the claim of Audu Ogbeh, Minister of |Agriculture, that rice mills are collapsing in the Asian country.
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