As reactions continue to trail the burial of late Chief of Staff to Nigeria’s President, Mallam Abba Kyari; the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), FCT Council, has urged members of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 who were at the burial, to excuse themselves from the daily briefing.
Kyari, who was diagnosed of COVID-19 on March 27, 2020, died on Friday, 17th April, 2020 and was buried in Abuja the next day.
Journalists from the State House who went to cover the burial were barred from entering Aso Villa until 14 days of isolation. Those young men who buried the corpse are also being quarantined, in line with the extant guidelines on COVID-19.
Top officials of the government, including the PTF, who were led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, have come under serious attacks for breaking the protocol of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
In a statement on Monday in Abuja, the NUJ Chairman, FCT council, Emmanuel Ogbeche, called on members of the PTF which include the Coordinator, Mr. Mustapha, to demonstrate dignified responsibility by not putting journalists and others who attended the briefing in harm’s way.
“Following the protocol already established by the PTF and the Presidency in asking all those who attended the funeral rites for the late Mallam Abba Kyari, former Chief of Staff to the President, the NUJ urges in particular, members of the PTF who were at the Defence House and Gudu cemetery, to respectfully not attend the daily COVID-19 briefing until after the 14 days isolation,” the statement read.
Ogbeche said anything apart from this will further cast doubt on the integrity of the PTF, and put the little gains already achieved in jeopardy.
The FCT NUJ Chair advised journalists at the briefing to protest and possibly stage a walkout if any of the members that were at any of the rites shows up.
He charged journalists to be responsible for their safety by wearing appropriate PPEs and not become the news in their search for news.
According to him, the council was still calling on media organizations to provide PPEs and hazard allowance to those covering the COVID-19 crisis, insisting that “the union will declare industrial dispute with any organization that fails in this regard after the COVID-19 lockdown”.
