Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has accused sections of the Nigerian media of applying double standards in their coverage of political violence, warning that selective reporting could further raise tensions ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Keyamo made the allegation on Friday during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, while reacting to the violent disruption of a Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) town hall meeting in Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos.
The incident occurred on Thursday when suspected thugs invaded the venue of the meeting, forcing participants to flee.
Several reports said the attackers carried cutlasses, cudgels and stones, while some eyewitness accounts alleged that guns and other weapons were also involved.
NDC supporters subsequently confronted the attackers, resulting in a wider clash.
One suspect was apprehended and handed over to the police, according to reports.
Keyamo, however, questioned what he described as the limited media scrutiny of individuals seen in footage carrying weapons and wearing NDC-branded clothing, comparing the coverage with the treatment of APC chieftain Fadahunsi during an earlier controversy in Osun State.
“In Osun State, I remember what Fadahunsi went through. The press virtually choked, intimidated and harassed him, until he was invited by DSS or something. Fair enough! Now, everybody has seen the faces of those carrying cutlasses, guns, and whatever dangerous weapons, brandishing NDC, NDC vests. Where is the outrage this morning by the press?”
The minister also challenged the suggestion that those involved in the Lagos confrontation were simply defending themselves.
He referred to footage of a man arrested during the incident who, according to Keyamo, told journalists that nobody had sent him to the venue and that he had gone there to seek money.
Keyamo suggested that the confrontation could have arisen from a dispute involving local street youths and the organisers of the NDC gathering.
“Maybe because they did not settle the Alaye boys,” he said, while stressing that he did not support the violence.
“It’s a street tradition. I don’t support it, but that’s it,” he added.
The minister accused sections of the media of using different descriptions for similar incidents depending on the political affiliation of those involved.
According to him, violence involving APC supporters could sometimes be portrayed as an expression of public anger, while attacks against opposition supporters were more readily described as the work of political thugs.
“When it is flipped now, and I condemn it, that opposition members are being attacked in some parts of this country, then the rhetoric is not that the opposition has been rejected,” Keyamo said.
He also cited the destruction of President Bola Tinubu’s campaign posters, alleging that some incidents were deliberately recorded and presented as evidence that Nigerians had rejected the President.
Keyamo said such incidents should not be used to inflame political sentiments or create the impression that violence represented public opinion.
The minister further referred to an incident in Asaba in which a politician’s convoy was reportedly attacked and a person was killed during a subsequent retaliation.
He criticised media coverage that, according to him, focused on the alleged attack on the NDC rather than the loss of human life.
He said the deceased was later found not to be an APC member but a commercial tricycle operator.
“Do you know what happened? All the headlines the next day, including television stations who were running the news, never ever played up the fact that a human life had been taken. All the headlines were saying NDC attacked in Asaba. NDC attacked in Asaba,” he said.
Keyamo urged journalists to maintain impartiality in reporting political violence and called on the media to help lower political tensions ahead of the 2027 elections.
“I am calling on the press to be fair, to be just, to be balanced to all, and to lower the temperature,” he said.
He nevertheless acknowledged that members of the APC were not exempt from blame, admitting that some ruling-party members had also been accused of promoting violent rhetoric.
“Not all members of the All Progressives Congress are free from blame on this. I agree with you that certain members of the APC and certain jurisdictions have also been found guilty of promoting violent rhetoric. So I admit that,” Keyamo said.
On the role of security agencies, the minister called for impartial enforcement of the law, saying security personnel should arrest anyone found engaging in political violence regardless of party affiliation.
“Security agents must be proactive and must be like the lady justice that is blind,” he said. “Their role must be to keep the peace. Their role must be to ensure that there is law and order, and not to support the ruling party or the opposition party.”
Keyamo also defended his support for former President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 directive concerning armed ballot-box snatching, arguing that the directive was intended for security agencies and not private citizens.
He maintained that only law enforcement agencies should be armed and authorised to use force against armed individuals threatening lives or property.
“It is only the law enforcement agents that should be armed, which is what I said in 2019. I repeat it. I support it. I stand by it,” he said.
The minister said security agencies must therefore act without political considerations and ensure that anyone found carrying dangerous weapons or attacking others is arrested.
