The News Editor
PM News
Dear
Compatriot,
The News Editor
PM News
Dear
Compatriot,
Re: PM News Report - Traffic
Law: Group Slams Okada Riders, Says Protest Illegal
PLEASE INVESTIGATE
YOUR REPORTER – JAMIU YISA
The
attention of Joint Action Front (JAF) has been drawn to a malicious and
concocted report in the PM News of
December 21st 2012 captioned Traffic Law: Group Slams Okada Riders, Says Protest
Illegal
authored by
your reporter by the name Jamiu Yisa.
The
said report, which we strongly suspect is at the behest of the Lagos State
Government and the Lagos State Police Command was, aimed at disparaging the
Joint Action Front (JAF), equally undermines the credibility of the PM News.
The
malicious report as we reproduce in full reads:
“A pressure group, Joint Action Movement, JAM, has
described as illegal, the recent protest of some commercial motorcyclists
popularly called okada riders against the Lagos State Traffic Law. The group, at
rallies held at Agege and Mile 12 this morning, warned the protesters that they
risked being charged with contempt of court because their grievance against the
law has been adjudicated upon by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Addressing the rallies jointly, the National
Coordinator of JAM, Kehinde Olaore and Kola Animasaun, President and General
Secretary, respectively, wondered why an aggrieved set of people, who
approached the court for adjudication on a matter could thereafter engage in
senseless protest after their matter has been thrown out.
JAM dissociated its members from the last protest
organised by Joint Action Forum, JAF, and some okada riders. It admitted that
it was formerly part of JAF before it decided to engage in activities that are
inimical and detrimental to the corporate existence of the country.
While pledging its support to the Lagos State
government on the Traffic Law, the group warned against lawlessness and advised
protesting okada riders to be guided by law and due process.
Olaore and Animasaun warned the JAF to desist from
misleading those they are expected to guide aright”.
Let us put the record straight:
JAF
notes that the PM News has a record
of prompt and effective coverage of the activities of JAF, which are very
prominent in local and international media. None of your reporters covering the
activities of JAF and other groups in the civil society would have written such
malicious report without recourse to the leadership of JAF on such spurious
claims by agents-provocateur that they were erstwhile members of JAF.
The Joint Action Front (JAF) and not Joint Action
Forum as reported by the Mr. Jamiu Yisa is the pro-labour civil society coalition
with irreproachable precedents of struggle on the side of the working people
and the poor against exploitative and oppressive policies in its drive towards SYSTEM
CHANGE for the socio-economic transformation of Nigeria.
JAF operates on the basis of affiliate organisations who
subscribe to its goals. JAF cannot just be joined by the individuals. Thus, Kehinde
Olaore and Kola Animashaun are impostors unknown to JAF as they never belonged
to any of our affiliates.
We strongly believe that the floated JAM should be in
the imagination of Mr. Jamiu Yisa, who, from our preliminary findings, has been
exposed as an agent of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) working to
undermine the credibility of the PM News.
Also, our findings showed no such rallies as reported
by Mr. Jamiu Yisa took place anywhere in Lagos today. It is therefore, in the
interest of the PM News and the profession of journalism that Mr. Jamiu should
be investigated as to know whose interest is he serving.
Rallies and protests (even the rent-a-crowd government-sponsored)
had never escaped the attention of a wide section of the media and the police.
Mr. Jamiu needs to explain to the public who Kehinde Olaore and Kola Animashaun
are, his invitation to cover the rallies and photographs of the rallies. Mr.
Jamiu needs to convince the public of the history of JAM and its capacity to
pull two supposedly held rallies in the morning hours as were covered by only
him.
Given our high regards for the media, whose objective
reporting of JAF’s activities in the past and present are well documented, we
will not take Mr. Jamiu Yisa’s misleading and concocted report against the PM News. Instead, we urge the PM News to address the issues we have
raised with utmost diligence and save the profession of journalism from being
ridiculed by those violating its basic ethics and practice.
We appreciate your prompt treatment of the issue and
feedback to the Nigerian public on the fact of the matter.
Yours fraternally
Comrade
Abiodun Aremu
JAF
Secretary
