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IPC, Media Rights Agenda train journalists on Investigative Journalism and how to use FOI act

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IPC

BY: Saviour Adugba

The International P​​ress Centre (IPC), and the Media Rights Agency (MRA) have partnered with the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) to hold a two-day workshop in Lagos where Nigerian journalists were trained on how to employ investigative journalism in their day-to-day reportage.

IPC

Trainers at the IPC workshop

The Workshop also focused on how the journalists can properly utilise the FOI act to source for information from public agencies.

The workshop, which was held at Pearlworth Hotels, Lagos had 25 journalists pooled from the Southwestern Nigeria and Edo State in attendance.

In his opening remarks, Lanre Arogundade, the executive director of the IPC welcomed the participants to the workshop, and noted that the event was organised to help equip journalists with the skills needed to report on democratic accountability and to hold politicians to their promises.

He said, “This is pursuant to the aims and objectives of Component 4b: Support to Media of EU-SDGN project being implemented by our organisation to empower the Nigerian media to be professional, ethical, issue-focused, gender and conflict sensitive in the reporting of the democratic governance and electoral processes. The project also seeks to equip journalists with appropriate skills to engage in the reporting of democratic accountability in order to check impunity in the electoral process and ensure that elected politicians are made to account for their campaign promises.

“It is in the above context that the programme for this workshop has been designed to examine some dimensions to the issue at stake including the role of the media in ensuring good governance, the understanding of the frameworks and issues in campaign finance and the best practices in investigating political and campaign finance issues.”

The two-day event saw presentations on topical issues like the role of the media in ensuring good governance and government accountability, understanding and reporting campaign finance and political expenditure frameworks and issues, using investigative reporting techniques to monitor compliance with campaign finance and political expenditure regulations, understanding the key features of the Freedom of Information Act, and deploying the FOI act and other investigative tools/methodologies in reporting COID-19 funds in the public interest.

There was also a plenary session to accommodate story pitching from journalists who were expected to use the knowledge gained from the workshop to suggest high interest investigative stories that they were willing to pursue.

Resource persons at the event included Lanre Arogundade; the Executive Director of the IPC, Jide Ojo; the Executive Director of OJA Development Consult, Tobore Ovuorie; a multi-award winning investigative journalist, Edetaen Ojo; the Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and Dayo Aiyetan; Executive Director, International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).

At the end of the summit, participants were encouraged to utilise the knowledge gained at the workshop to identify stories that were of high public interest and continue to hold government and politicians accountable.

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“80% Of Buildings In Lekki Have No Approval” – Lagos State Commissioner For Physical Planning & Urban Development Reveals

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The Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Oluyinka Olumide, has stated that 80 per cent of buildings in Ibeju Lekki have no approval.

Olumide disclosed this while speaking to newsmen recently.

In his words; “Just last week Thursday and Friday, myself and the team were in the Ibeju Lekki and Epe axis and you would agree with me that anybody passing through that corridor would see a lot of estates marked. We went there, and I can tell you that from what we saw, over 80 per cent of them do not have approval.

The procedure to get approval is first to get the planning information, as to what those areas have been zoned for. In this case, what we have is agricultural land, and people now go to their families to buy agricultural land. Of course, those lands would be sold because those families do not know the use such land would be put to.

The next thing to do is the fence permit. If you missed the earlier information on not knowing the area zoning, at the point of getting the fence permit, you would be able to detect what the area is zoned for. After that, the layout permits a large expense of land follows.”’

Olumide noted that a layout permit cannot be obtained if it is not zoned for the purpose it was designed for or for the purpose it was being requested.

“So, you can see all these layers, but people still go ahead to start advertising. Some have even gone to the extent of displaying the sizes they want to sell. Imagine someone in the diaspora who wants to send money without any knowledge. Then, no approval is eventually gotten. Even if they pass the assignment and the survey to them, we would not grant the individual permit, because that area is not zoned for that purpose’’ Olumide said

This partly explains why some of the houses are being turn down currently in the state.

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Lady Dies After Friends Pushed Her Into Boiling Pot Of Fresh Pepper In Delta State

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A Nigerian man identified as Israel Joe, has revealed how his friend, Roseline, died after she was pushed into a boiling pot of fresh pepper and tomatoes by her two female friends in Sapele, Delta State.

Joe stated that Roseline, a caterer, went on a trip with her friends to Sapele for a catering job where the bitter ordeal occured.

She tragically passed away on Saturday, April 13 after spending two weeks at the hospital in a very horrible state.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Joe said that before her untimely death, Roseline confided in him about two of her friends who were treating her coldly.
And he has vowed to bring them to justice.

This is such a heartbreaking event.

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IPOB Declares May 30th As Sit-at-home Day Across The Southern East States To Honour Biafran Fallen Heroes

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The Indigenous People of Biafra has declared May 30, 2024, as a sit-at-home day across the South-East to celebrate Biafran soldiers.

The pro-Biafran group said that day is set aside annually to celebrate the men and women who died in the Biafran war between 1967 and 1970 and beyond and even until now.

This was made known in a press statement by the group’s spokesman, Emma Powerful, on Thursday, adding that every Biafran in the South-East is expected to sit at home and reflect on the war.

He cautioned South-East residents to avoid loitering about on this day, adding that those who intend to travel to and fro Biafra land must do so before the evening of May 29.

The IPOB statement also directed that all the residents of “Biafra Land” are to stay indoors from 6 am to 6 pm on May 30, 2024.

He also called on christians and traditionalists to pray to Chukwu okike abiama for the fallen heroes, And also for the independence of Biafra from Nigeria.

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