The Brigade Commander, 4 Brigade Nigeria Army, Brigadier General Ebenezer Oduyebo, has assured the people of Edo State that the military will ensure that all eligible voters exercise their civic responsibility without let or hindrance on Saturday, September 21st when the state governorship poll would be held.
He gave the assurance on Thursday afternoon while receiving the executives of the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and some of its members led by its Chairman, Comrade Festus Alenkhe, who were on a courtesy visit to his office in Benin City.
Brig. Gen. Oduyebo asserted that the press must be allowed to carry out its duties without hindrance for the betterment of the society. He stated that since his assumption of office he has maintained an open door policy and mutual relationship with the press.
“I want to say that we really respect the journalists and we are friendly with you people because our approach to national security is whole of society approach. Everybody has been brought on board. If you have any issues we always prefer that you take it up with us and we will address those issues instead of going to press.
“If you portray your military in bad light you’re not going to achieve anything you will rather make us not to have the confidence to be able to do what we ought to do. But if there are issues call us and verify. We will tell you exactly what happened. We have been trained not to tell people lies.”
He assured the journalists that his men would accord them respect and give them the safety they need to carry out their assignment on the election day while advising that they ensure that they are properly accredited to avoid some elements from using the loopholes in the accreditation process to cause confusion.
Earlier, Comrade Alenkhe had intimated Brigadier General Oduyebo of the NUJ’s insistence on professionalism within its ranks to curb incidence of reportage of fake news and quackery among many others.
“It’s our responsibility to regulate the activities of journalists. We have ethics of the profession which we have been observing very keenly. We have resolved that only practising journalists, those with journalism certificates, will now henceforth be accommodated in the union,” Comrade Alenkhe submitted.
He disclosed that the generality of the 265 journalists practising in Edo State would be on duty across the 192 wards in the state on the election day and thus need the guarantee of safety in the discharge of their duties.
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