The Presidency has accused the Amnesty International (AI) of sharing misleading and inaccurate details about recent events surrounding the Lekki shooting.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, who spoke Wednesday morning on the Channels Television daily programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ said AI’s report on the crisis was inaccurate, misplacing facts and wrong in most cases.
According to Adesina, the narrative the widespread chaos in various parts of the country, which had seen many policemen and civilians killed, police stations burnt, private and public properties looted and destroyed, was precipitated by the incident at the Lekki Toll Plaza on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, was generated by AI was a misleading narrative.
According to him, timeline of events showed that anarchic activities had commenced way ahead of the alleged shooting at the toll plaza, citing the jail breaks in Benin and Oko, the attacks on police stations and murder of police personnel in different places as pointers to the fact that the chaos that had recently pervaded the country were not just as a result of the Lekki incident.
Responding to a question that the looting was a fall out of the Lekki shootings, Adesina said: “You are not quite correct. You are falling for the narrative of Amnesty International. And Amnesty is wrong. Anarchy had broken loose before even Lekki. The prisons in Benin and Oko had been broken open before Lekki. Orile police station had been burnt before Lekki.
“Many policemen had been burnt before Lekki. So, you cannot say it was Lekki that precipitated all those things. Look at the timelines, look at when all those things.
“You will discover that it had happened before Lekki. So, you are falling for the gambit of Amnesty International.
“Amnesty International does not have all the facts, they don’t run this country. They shouldn’t know beyond what they have been told. They shouldn’t know more than you and I should know as media people, as watchers of developments,” he said.
When asked if it was the President’s thinking that Amnesty’s report was wrong, the presidential spokesman said Amnesty International had been known to always make unsubstantiated reports about Nigeria.
“Many times, the military has come out to dispute facts brought out by Amnesty,” he said.
The presidential spokesman revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered his Ministers to submit reports of their engagements with stakeholders in their various states over the recent chaotic events following #EndSARS within the next week.
However, only two ministers had their reports ready as at Wednesday when the week’s FEC meeting was convened, which made the President to order a mandatory submission of reports to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) within a week.
Disclosing this during the programme, Adesina said “I can tell you because there was another Federal Executive Council meeting yesterday (Wednesday), the President asked for briefs from ministers who went out.
“Only two had their reports ready as at yesterday because some others were still in their respective states still carrying out their assignment.
“So, the President said all of them should turn in their reports through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in the incoming week,” he disclosed.
Asked what to expect out of the reports, Adesina said: “Well, it can only be positive.
“One, it will help us to establish the truth to some things because there are a lot of conjectures, colourations, outright falsehoods, fake news and all that.
“The Ministers can come with what is near authentic based on the consultations they are going to make.”
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
