By Felix Khanoba
The University of Abuja (UniAbuja) has described as untrue a story by one of Nigerian dailies, Daily Trust, on alleged attempted security breach in the institution, saying the report is misleading.
UniAbuja, in a statement signed by its Acting Director, Information and University Relations, Dr Habib Yakoob, which was obtained by The AUTHORITY on Monday, said the University was not invaded by gunmen as erroneously reported by the newspaper.
While saying that there is no security concerns in the University as testified to by last weekend’s peaceful convocation, UniAbuja expressed the need for accurate reporting, which is a hallmark of responsible journalism.
The statement reads : “Our attention has been drawn to a false and misleading story published in the Daily Trust edition of Friday 6th October 2023 titled “Gunmen attempt to abduct female student from Uniabuja hostel.”
We wish to state categorically that no such incident occurred at all in our esteemed institution.
To state that the main campus was INVADED by ‘gunmen suspected to be kidnappers,’ is not only irresponsible but absolutely false. How can this be possible when the University mounts a twenty-four-hour surveillance throughout the campus? As far as we are concerned, if there is anyone carrying guns on our campus, they are men of the Nigerian Police force, campus security personnel as well as other official security agencies.
Our students are also not living in fear as falsely claimed in this story, because they have been going about their normal academic businesses and enjoying the convivial atmosphere of our campus. Recall that the University held its 27th convocation ceremony Saturday 7th October 2023, which was massively attended by government officials, students, graduands, parents, among others.
It is evident that the reporter of this story failed to adhere to the basic principles of responsible journalism and simply relied on unverified sources to feed the public with sensational and fake news.
Though our side of the story was sought by the reporter, due diligence was not done in the presentation of our facts as it turned out that the medium simply called just to put it on record that he made an attempt to fulfil the principle of fairness in journalism.
It is important to understand that accurate reporting is a hallmark of responsible journalism, and publishing such a damagingly false story about a university that takes the security of its students and staff very seriously is to say the least the height of irresponsible journalism.”
