Mr Ibrahim Magu, the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has advocated for a free press, stressing that it was an important element of any democratic setting, and essential to winning the war against corruption.
“Press freedom leads to less corruption because public monitoring and social outrage generated by corruption compels public officials to think twice and change course,” he said.
Magu, in a statement from the office of EFCC’s spokesman, Tony Orilade on Wednesday, gave the charge at the third annual conference of the Online Publishers Association Of Nigeria (OPAN), which held at the Sandralia Hotel, Abuja, on January 16, 2019.
Making reference to the famous American President, Thomas Jefferson, who said he would rather choose to have newspapers without a government, Magu who was represented by Tony Orilade, acting Spokesperson for the EFCC, described the free press as very significant in the human society.
He said: “The existence of a free press is indispensable for the survival and progress of all nations across the world, and the same is the case with Nigeria.
“The same is the case with Nigeria, where countless writers, journalists, media houses, and human rights activists paid the supreme sacrifice in the struggle for press freedom.
“The media should improve domestic accountability by putting issues that directly concern the interest of citizens and public institutions on the front agenda.
“We must jealously guard this hard earned treasure and use it for entrenching the structures of democratic accountability and the fight against corruption in our country.
“This can be done by using the media in monitoring service delivery by elected public officials, because it is clear that press freedom leads to less corruption because public monitoring and social outrage generated by corruption compels public officials to think twice and change course.”
Also present at the Conference, was Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora.
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