Nigeria Secret Police Moves To Censor Media Reports On Terrorism

DG of Nigeria’s Department of State Security, Ita Essien Ekpeyong

Worried by growing reports on acts of terrorism in Nigeria, the Directorate of the State Security Service (SSS) has invited reporters covering security in Abuja to undergo a week-long “training” on how to report terrorism in the country.

SaharaReporters learnt that the invited journalists were already in Bwari, a suburb of Abuja, where they are being taught the dos and don’ts of reporting on terrorism, according to the dictates and rule book of the Nigerian secret police.

The training is being coordinated by officers of the SSS led by its Director-General, Ekpeyong Ita.

The SSS had told the reporters that they should remain in the school throughout the duration of their training, which started on Sunday.

A senior official of the SSS told our correspondent that the agency was not happy with the way reporters were exposing security problems facing the country and blaming the security agencies for poor intelligence work. “We are worried about the image of the Service, which is being adversely affected by negative reports by journalists,” said the official. He added: “We need to partner with [the media] so that they will know the type of stories to be sending to their headquarters concerning us.”

The SSS and other security agencies have been blamed for failure of intelligence gathering, which has been identified as a factor in several successful bombings carried out by members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect in the country.