Anxiety as president Tinubu gets 48 hours ultimatum to reverse journalists' ban in Aso Rock

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately reverse the ban on 25 journalists and media houses from reporting the happenings at the presidential villa in Abuja.

According to Channels, the accountability group also added that the president should restore their accreditation with immediate effect.

SERAP, in a statement on Sunday, August 27, called on the President to publicly order the presidential villa's officials to allow the media houses and their journalists to perform their constitutional duty of accountability.

This was disclosed in the statement, signed by the deputy director of SERAP and made available to journalists on Sunday.

According to SERAP, the federal government has withdrawn the accreditation of some 25 journalists from reporting activities from the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The group stated that the banned journalists are from Vanguard, ONTV, MITV, PromptNews, Liberty, Ben TV, Galaxy TV, and ITV Abuja.

Press freedom is vital to Nigeria's democracy, SERAP tells Tinubu

It maintained that the action means that journalists and media houses have been prevented from exercising their legitimate duties as specified in the constitution.

The statement reads in part: “Your administration cannot ban journalists from covering public functions with one broad stroke. Citizens’ access to information and participation would mean little if journalists and media houses are denied access to the seat of government."

It further stated that the cornerstone of Nigeria's democracy is media freedom, and journalists must be allowed to hold the people in government accountable.