All States Are Safe, FG Tells U.S.

The Federal Government yesterday said every state in the country is safe, contrary to a report by the United States.

Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this in Abuja when he received in audience a delegation from the Association of Tourism Practitioners of Nigeria (ATPN).

Mohammed said the advisory published by the U.S., which was awash in national dailies declaring 20 Nigerian states “unsafe and completely no go area”, was not correct.

The minister admonished the media to desist from propagating negative news about the country, stressing that it would discourage investors and be counter productive to tourism growth.

“Recently, all the newspapers carried the negative story that 20 states in Nigeria are not safe, according to a U.S. report.

“We are in Nigeria, how can we believe the claim that 20 states in Nigeria are not safe.

“That is not correct. There is no state in Nigeria that is not safe today.

“Is there any week they are not killing people in the U.S. by either shooting in schools or driveways or people committing suicide or mass bombing.

“How many of these stories do their media celebrate?

“If they want to tell their people not to come to Nigeria, it is not for us to help them propagate it,” he said.

The minister urged the media and members of the association to complement efforts of government to reposition the tourism sector.

ABUJA-Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday, gave reasons why he failed to surrender himself to be interrogated by the Police Special Investigating Panel over alleged padding of the 2016 budget.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/budget-padding-cannot-interrogated-tried-dogara/