The Federal Government has threatened to penalise the British Broadcasting Corporation and Daily Trust for their documentaries on terrorism and banditry in Nigeria.
According to TheCable, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammad, stated this on Thursday in Abuja.
The BBC, in an hour-long documentary titled ‘The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara’, undertaken by Yusuf Anka, showed remote bandit enclaves in Zamfara.
It featured Abu Sanni, a self-confessed bandit kingpin, who showed the station around, pointing out that insecurity has become a business everyone benefits from.
Sanni confessed that he masterminded the abduction of students of Government Girls Secondary School Jangebe, Zamfara.
Daily Trust had in a similar documentary earlier revealed the heinous activities of bandits in Zamfara State and other terror-torn places.
Displeased by the documentaries in the face of increasing terrorist attacks even in Abuja, the minister said, “Let me assure you, they will not get away with this naked glorification of terrorism and banditry in Nigeria.
“When otherwise reputable platforms like BBC give their platform to terrorists, showing their faces as if they’re Nollywood stars… I want to assure them that they won’t get away with it, the appropriate sanctions will be meted.”
