From Ben Dunno, Warri
South-South Professional and Transparency Initiatives (SSPTI), has called on the Federal Government to investigate the recent report by the British Broadcasting Service (BBC) indicting a non-existing organisation for being the most notorious in global cyber crimes.
Dr. Ugochukwu Alozie and Kayode Ayomide, SSPTI chairman and secretary respectively, said in a statement in Warri, Delta State, yesterday, that the report “lacked basic ingredients of being accurate, fair and objective in its entirety, as it was calculated, designed and sponsored to malign the good reputation of the nation’s security agencies.”
It urged Federal Government to commence process of unravelling the rationale behind such falsehood by BBC to discredit efforts of Nigeria Police Force in on going war against cyber crimes and other social vices in the country.
SSPTI queried: “How can BBC be making such frivolous allegation against members of an organisation that does not exist to be behind high profile cyber crime cases globally and yet could not mention names of the group members that were arrested, the nature of crimes committed and where they are currently being detained?
“Besides the fact that the report was being sponsored to tarnish the good reputation of the country, both the BBC and INTERPOL are using the false reports against the nation as a money making venture.
“We have taken out time to carefully monitor the news being disseminated by BBC across the African continent in recent time. We could see the bias negative reports they have continued to spread against some groups and influential personalities, especially those from Nigeria, to rubbish the reputation they have built for themselves over the years.
“We have come to the realisation that whenever some desperate politicians, political parties or private individuals wants to malign the image of a perceived political opponent or business rivals, they now engage the services of BBC to do the dirty job for them.
“Records have shown that Nigerians are mostly the target of the BBC conspiracy and this can be attested to in the way they have attempted to discredit Pastor T B Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), with falsehood and the recent witch-hunting of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of Christ Embassy Church.
“While we want to acknowledge the fact that the Nigeria Police Force can boost of being among the best rated in the world and number one effective law enforcing agent in the continent. We see these on going campaigns by INTERPOL and BBC as another method of discrediting the operatives as non-performing in curbing cyber crimes, even when it’s obvious they working within the ambit of law in tackling the menace.
“We call on the Federal Government to probe this damaging report against Nigeria by BBC, as we are not new to the ways the media outfit had been involved in several campaigns of calumny against the nation in recent times.”