People join terror groups for money — SSS boss

[DT]

Director General of the State Security Service (SSS) Ita Ekpenyong yesterday said most people now join terrorist groups in Nigeria just to make money and not to fight for any cause.  Mr. Ekpenyong said at the opening of a workshop on media and national security in Abuja that such groups exist for the money their members stand to make through violent crimes including armed robbery.

"It is greed," he said, adding: "We arrested one carpenter who joined the terrorists recently. He told us that he used to make about N80,000 per month but now gets over N250,000 after joining the terrorists."

He said terror groups engage in robbery and share the proceeds among themselves.

The DG criticized the media for allowing themselves to be used to send terrorists' threat messages to people or ridicule the security forces.

"The media is like oxygen to terrorists," he added.

Mr. Ekpenyong urged media organisations to balance their reports by being fair to both sides and avoid reportage capable of undermining national security.

"It is not the job of independent media to act as mouthpiece for government, but to report as objectively as they can on the course of events. The media would be failing in its task if it did not critically examine government policies from the point of view of both moral justification and their practical effectiveness," he said.

"The media must when reporting on matters of national security submit to certain restraints. The worst thing the journalist can do therefore is to exaggerate the threat and make the terrorists' message louder. That serves only to deepen people's fear and sharpen the divisions in the society, the terrorists can then exploit further."



Daily Trust