We’re determined to end impunity against journalists, others – FG

The Federal Government says it is determined to end all forms of impunity in the country including hostility against journalists and other citizens.

The Attorney-General of the  Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said this on Sunday.

He made this pledge in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Dr Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crime Against Journalists.

This is marked annually on November 2.

The statement was titled, ‘Malami Welcomes CPJ Report, says Nigeria Vows to End Impunity for Crime Against Journalists’.

The AGF noted that it was gratifying to note that “Nigeria is no longer among the countries with impunity for crime against journalists”, referring to the 2020 Global Index for Impunity for Crime Against Journalists released on Wednesday by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The report indicated that Nigeria is the only country that came off the index from 2019.

He recalled that in the last decade before the current regime of the President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria had ranked 13th across the globe and used to be among top three African countries with impunity for crime against journalists only after Somalia and South Sudan.

Malami attributed the achievement by Nigeria in the new index to the “deliberate and committed efforts of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government through the implementation of many reforms in the Nigerian justice sector to include increased access to justice, speedy justice dispensation, decongestion of Nigeria’s correctional centres and judicious implementation of the Criminal Justice Act and Justice Sector reforms.”

The AGF declared that Nigeria would never be among nations where journalists and other inhabitants would suffer any form of impunity.