Week here in london live mohammed the countrys information minister how does he defend against the countrys many critics when the evidence of wrongdoing is so compelling. Like mohammed welcome to concerts. Thank you for the human rights record of your administration has been widely condemned by the un western countries your own Lawyers International human rights bodies for brutality and the stunning lack of accountability why do you see this go on and why didnt you get a grip on this i think theres been a lot of. Misrepresentation. By all these groups absolutely really working concert well i already know that working constant theyre working you know a lot but i know for a fact thats essential in particular. As being very sensitive to the issue of human rights most sometimes terrorists politicians activists are confused with human rights so you put it all down to confusion i would do that because i do not know as a fact and ive been minister for almost 5 years that this any policy of my mistress. Deliberately targeted at infringing on anybodys rights missed the last september the un special rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions agnus kalama she launched a damning report on nigeria im sorry and the human rights abuses of your Security Forces she said she spoke of countrywide patterns of abuses include the police militarys excessive use of lethal lethal force in violation of the Political International standards im sure you read the report page is not a person who makes these accusations lightly indeed i did but i would up the much more impressed even example was. I given now you must not forget that name has been locked in a war of attrition with a book for almost a decade and the kind of. War were fighting is a war amongst people. And. Even then the military has been very careful to assure that as much as possible writes i know about it it now ive also read about reports of people who claim that there isnt balloted simply because they have been arrested by any of the security agencies and theyve been asked to go through or due process but i know their support is in this government does nobody today but is right if its not a matter of policy why have there been so few investigations the un investigator spoke about the absence of meaning effective investigations the absence of meaningful prosecution all of which are compounded she said by the lack of transparency over the vast majority of Security Issues that accusation about lack of transparency and Effective Communication strategy goes straight to your door minister doesnt it you are the minister of information serious criticism here but what i do know is a fact that. Several keys of abuse of you know rights really against soldiers have not only be investigated but people have been punished and have been made public how many how many people i dont know of had but i knew the minister of information was of course i cant know everything but i knew for i know that the military or so is very jealous of his reputation and they have set up many say you know. I also and i think that officer either had been dismissed or imprisoned. The International Criminal court isnt isnt impressed by a record that says in 20000 there was a reasonable basis to believe that the nigerian Security Forces committed the war crimes of murder torture cruel treatment outrages upon personal dignity and intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population but you have failed to cooperate with investigators and failed to provide information that they requested and if you take these things seriously and you cannot but take the word of the International CriminalCourt Seriously you would have provided that information why didnt you how would you know what information they are asking for a law provided by another would incorporate in with a brief aegis history when it comes to they said they werent they werent getting help from you they were getting them from the hay nor the the i. C. C. Met with the authorities had a career and we would have no choice but to cooperate theyve been waiting for years to get your cooperation and it hasnt come minister maybe youre out of the loop here what maybe you dont have information about whats going on in your own government very. Informed or goes oh my god meant and ill sell adelaide i do take the trouble to ask and. I am not the case again im not aware that we have we dont our cooperation from the i. C. C. The un special rapporteur speaks of countless allegations of excessive use of force by your police in particular officers of the special anti robbery squad or sars you said you wanted specific examples is a specific examples theyve been accused of widespread torture in some cases leading to deaths in custody and extra judicial killings so the unit is clearly out of control isnt it because the Un Human Rights Committee warned your government to ensure that this group operates in accordance with International Standards because they dont trust that its doing that at the moment why would that be i guess that i think im aware of that and at a point in time when support came out the sas was disbanded and or little because stupid and you know werent as forth they must be sure that they operated within the confines of the law your own National HumanRights Commission investigated their activities and even held public hearings but the results were never published were. Not aware of them are not aware that i was on what are published and i took my assumption has to be that youre covering up damaging evidence doesnt it with your friends i dont think so we have. Some police men were dismissed their targets sas was disbanded and reorganized there after. Minister on the question of providing information to outside investigators you failed to provide information to the u. N. Under the International Covenant on civil and Political Rights which nigeria has signed last august the treaty body accused you of failing to honor your reporting obligations under article 40 of the covenant and ignoring numerous reminders to do so why is that when you told me all cooperating so openly with these bodies why would they say that what the housing true i want to know that they will say that but i know that we have never shown any internationalization where very open as to the facts those who are not hershey would use too much as possible for any country who is in no way gene and in turn out you know. You know insurgency very open and we we operate with international you know regulations and laws well clearly you dont go into the bodies that monitor these situations well it depends a for it it depends on from which perspective theyre getting the information where theyre getting it from different perspectives on them were talking about human rights organizations International Human rights organizations were talking about the u. N. Were talking about. All kinds of bodies the International Criminal court theyre all saying the same thing that youre not cooperating and you sit here the in front in front of me minister says about simply not true its like saying its dark in this outside when we can see its very like no no i think that knowledge is not correct i ignore the daily we receive all the entity and we engage all these bodies. As a government and youre not going to move from that version despite the evidence that i have quite a level of im yet to see anybody any evidence that tam. That is so very manly and white and the official in that as not responded to it when he talked of a sus yes admitted that yes it will be presumably part and we took action mr whether or not stonewalling on requests for information or taking radio stations of the air and having reporters arrested or beaten june last year you tried shutting down nigerias oldest private t. V. Channel as well as radio stations owned by a member of the opposition p. D. P. Rayment dock pacey a federal court overturned your suspension but the Nigerian Guild of editors called this a barbaric crackdown on free speech why are you launching a barbaric crackdown on free speech i think is a lot of ignorance and a lot of this chief geddes has gone already talking about of really good the press is station was closed down because he ordered the national red little not because of the news he was pushing out and in january last year soldiers raided the offices of one of your leading papers the daily trust and arrested reporters in march of journalists have been held for 2 years was rearrested you rank 100 and 20th out of 180 countries in the press freedom in the acts of Reporters Without Borders its not a glorious record is it minister well as i think when it comes to the level of the press. Were doing extremely very well and if papers run foul of the law they must be the consequences but when you have but today 100 newspapers in the country and i sat in the example of one is beer bottles go dine with me here i think should be fair to us thats why we have a very Robust Free PressAmnesty International says that between january and september last year at least 19 journalists and media practitioners were attacked those attacks and klute verbal and physical assault and indiscriminate arrest and detention by your Security Forces the impression ministers therefore that your aims seems to be to stifle freedom of expression especially critical voices you dont like criticism thats the caret is it because i think many of these people dont live on that dont know the eco system of the media injuria virtually every major you know print media is owned by individuals and i can tell you that this they listen about 12 National Newspapers and trust dilip trust i do it i dont remember what the story was but you cannot take the example of one newspaper among about 20 to say that the country is stifling the media on the contrary at a point in time i thought that was the government it was actually at the receiving end of the media what has also worried people enormously his decision to submit a bill which in its original form would have seen anyone convicted of socalled hate speech actually sentenced to death by hanging on the particular circumstances you actually wanted and you sort authorization from parliament to kill people because of something they said why would you do a thing like that extraordinary and shocking provision added what is it was. More shocking is the ignorance of people theres what does cause oppression of power in or in most major democracies this particular be talking about is it bill submitted not by designating a body that is leisure but illustrated by more government so how can you accuse the executive you submitted you submitted as we did not as a source of the sort of ignorance we did not this this is a private members bill but a senator we just the you have this and youre telling me you didnt want it to go through is that we do have a choice in which bills go through or not the bill has been discussed this public airing what is it the government does not commit to when the bill has been passed and you didnt use any influence to get that out or sold out or absolutely none if this bill had gone through mr journalist could have been jailed for any article deemed threatening abusive or insulting and could have been hung if their work caused any loss of life what you didnt object to this bill did you. See this was what is called the tree of the panel power. The only thing you can do as president is refuse your asset so its a lot the last blood being passed the blood what would not or did it but is that if the law is still going through the senate so how is that how did i does mr president stop it with ive been accused of not dictatorship and muslim the you telling me you wouldnt have signed the law with that provision in it i think this you can tell me that caylee had been speculative you cant tell me why when we went wed get one yet that bridge right across it would look at what are the contents of that law in what form will it be passed but you see people rushed in order to history to judge to judgement you cant if we dont you wonder if you said we submitted that thats bill we did not we know nothing i dont want it submitted you we dont micromanage the parliament really what about the protection from internet for sword and manipulations bill also carrying draconian provisions on the journalists could be imprisoned for publishing content all the author of that bill are you against this bill will know im not even aware of that bill youre not of the protection from internet false or the manipulations bill youre not even aware of now where it so it cannot because it is causing its causing an outcry internationally and youre the minister of information and i love thing about it is nor thought bill before the house there is a bill to say that that authority that it developed that has not such a bill before the house Reporters Without Borders these bills talking about the prohibition of hate speech bill and the protection from internet falso the manipulations bill they said these bills contain extremely harsh penalties that violate International Law and are likely to be used to gag the media and you are saying you know nothing about the doctors saying with they were wrong in saying that the desert him submitted the hate speech bill. Mr lets talk about corruption because in your country it seems to begin with the government doesnt it the International Center for investigative reporting said last year that among 9 countries in Subsaharan Africa nigeria has the worst managed Sovereign Wealth Fund based on accountability transparency and oversight why is your record so bad absolutely false. Absolutely false report by the National Resource institutes Africa Office based on data from 2017 said you had failed to regularly disclose publicly the financial interests of government officials in the extractive sector or the identities of Beneficial Owners of extractive companies despite making public commitments to do so the subsidy forces the force to do or the 1st obligation as a minister or a public official is way too little it probably declare ration of oil assets. And any minister or public official who does not do so risks being prosecuted and we know many one of them politically as a result of that too is to the credit of this administration that only a few months ago we passed you know we put in the in place a policy that compels every ministry every department to make public any expenditure above 10000 past so that the public can challenge what is being spent for is all the good of a position that no government has ever succeeded in securing the condition of high profile politicians tradition as paid those of them who belong to the William Party we continue to fight corruption because and you for and you follow the rules do absolutely so in 2018 why in towards the close of president will his 1st wives or the Auditor General himself raise serious concerns about the socalled excess crude account that you have this is an oil savings account which holds dollar reserves from crude oil that are sold above the assumed benchmark price and in july that year the Auditor General warned you to bring your handling of this account into line with the more why if you tell me follow the rules did you feel the need to say this is precisely because. He said it shows how to correct them so sean is the editor there as an appointee of just how shocking he thinks your behavior actually is no us nor on the contrary really is shows the level of transparency in demonstration that an appointee of god plenty cant say this yet retain his job he noted the actions from the account which appeared to have been made illegally in other words deductions that apparently violated constitutional provisions why would that be and why would he say that if youre following the rules d as you tell me you are everywhere in the world to live in the most well known democracies you have what it is generous you have what would it a generous yes yes and their duty is to monitor the excesses of government now defunct that is allowed to do the job and the sciri mince in office i think its a testament to the fact that were in a bit of bread you know im stretching the effect if this is one congratulations for that always be heard i am going for as good as or as good from you as as i was supposed to be just as im from the Auditor General who says you are not in line with the law with that you dont think that man was asked by do this to the. To the correctness or not of that you know allegation the fact that he can make that allegation submit each has been looked into understeer admitted that there are i think its that will happen in it and station that does not believe interest me says the audit team could find no Legal Authority for even the existence of this excess crude account so its a sham and a slush fund isnt it why dont why dont you admit it and with that yeah theres no legal basis for this for this account and you know i dont think its correct to say that this normally would be as well because the. Court could access a cult ive known about it even before we came to government. It said the audit team could find no Legal Authority for even the existence of this excess crude account how come you didnt order persistent warnings from the Auditor General as he said year after year not just your government but the previous one going back to 2007 to bring this in line with the law again you tell me you follow the rules but its not backed up by the Auditor General we followed the r