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A group, Yewa Youths Progressive Movement, has called on a Nigerian investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, to desist from tagging border communities in Ogun West as "smugglers' posts" and the residents as smugglers.
The group, in a statement jointly signed by its Chairman and Publicity Secretary, Adeoye Akinola and Sunday Adeyemi, respectively on Thursday, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said it was not against the investigative journalist carrying out his duties, but he should desist from sensationalism, unnecessary embellishment and name-calling.
According to YYPM, Soyombo's activities in the name of investigative journalism have painted Ogun border communities as beehives of smugglers and cast negative shadows on the towns and their residents.
The youth group said that the recent social media post by the investigative journalist that vehicles loads of foreign parboiled rice had been stationed in some border communities ready to be smuggled into the country, was not only a ruse but a deliberate attempt to further disparage Ogun West.
It added that the border communities have since grown from being a safe haven for smugglers, who throng the communities from all over the country, to locations where legitimate inter-border businesses now thrive.
The YYPM stated further that immediately after the announcement of a ban on importation of rice through the land borders by the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, traders and residents in the border communities embraced the pronouncement and swiftly diversified into order forms of businesses.
The statement disclosed that several entrepreneurs in the axis invested heavily in the cultivation and production of local rice in tandem with the Federal Government's policy of eat-what-you-grow.
The group further pointed out that residents in these communities, especially the youth, have continued to collaborate with the Nigerian Customs Service in its efforts to curb smuggling and other inter-border economic sabotages.
The statement reads: "As a youth group working for the development and growth of border communities in Ogun West Senatorial District of Ogun State, the activities of Mr Soyombo in the name of investigative journalism have no doubt cast negative shadows on our towns and portrayed our people as smugglers.
"It is indeed worrisome that while we are still working to remove the toga and label of smugglers put on some of our legitimate business men by this so-called investigative journalist, he recently posted on the social media that he was aware of thousands car loads of foreign parboiled rice hidden in the border communities and ready to be smuggled into the country.
"This claim is not only a spurious one, but calculated efforts to mislead the authority concerned and cause unnecessary tension. We are not against journalism aimed aty ensuring sanity and engender socio-economic development, but we condemn in its entirety, sensationalism, unnecessary embellishment, and name-calling.
"Our communities and people who were hitherto into inter-border trading, have since diverted into other legitimate ventures since the announcement of ban on importation of foreign rice through land borders by the immediate past administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
"Apart from that, several entrepreneurs in the axis have invested heavily in the cultivation and production of local rice in tandem with the Federal Government's policy of eat-what-you-grow.
"We, hereby, urge Mr Soyombo to desist from tagging border communities in Ogun State as safe haven for smugglers. As an investigative journalist who is interested in activities of smugglers, we implore him to focus on other border communities in the country and stop engaging in a business of 'calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it', in Ogun border communities".
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