By Jeffrey Agbo
Ace journalist, Kadaria Ahmed, has come under fire on social media for describing ‘The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara’ documentary by the BBC as “irresponsible reporting”.
BBC recently x-rayed banditry in a 50-minute documentary, providing insight into the mindset of bandit kingpins, the booming kidnap-for-ransom industry, and how Zamfara’s insecurity may have been brought on by the ethnic conflict between Hausa and Fulani groups.
But Ahmed said in an opinion article published on Thursday that the BBC Africa Eye may be charged with aiding terrorism because it “provided” a platform for terrorists to express their extreme views.
The CEO of Radio Now 95.3FM Lagos wrote, “Journalists and now a global media organisation of repute, the BBC, which should know better, are becoming a tool for terrorists, even if unwittingly, by amplifying the faces, voices and stories of killers and marauders who are still operating with impunity across Nigeria.
“The public interest argument seems to have been misunderstood, some may even say misrepresented, to enable sensationalist reporting that is very unlikely to be allowed on screens in the United Kingdom. By not upholding the same standards as they would in the UK, in their work in Nigeria, the BBC Africa Eye producers in their latest documentary titled ‘The Bandits Warlords of Zamfara’ have provided a global platform to terrorists and can be accused of becoming an accomplice to terror in the name of reporting it.”
However, tweeps are of the opinion that her argument is incorrect.
See reactions below: