The Federal Government has announced that over 300 foreign journalists have been accredited to cover the forthcoming election.
The Director General of National Orientation Agency, Mr. Mike Omeri made this known adding that more foreign journalists will be accredited before the election commences.
He said: “It’s an ongoing process and about 350 foreign journalists have been accredited already. As they report here, we will give them the guidelines to follow.
“We have them from all across the world; we have a few examples like Aljazeera, CNN, BBC, media houses from Congo, Cameroon Radio stations and so on.”
Omeri dismissed claims that some foreign journalists were being denied visas, saying that Nigeria, like every other country, has rules and regulations guiding the issuance of visas to foreigners which has to be adhered to.
He said: “We do background checks in the process of issuing visas and when some are denied visas, we don’t have to state the reasons why they were denied visas; and no country interferes with the consular affairs of another country.
“The problem is that they (foreign journalists) wanted to submit (application) today and get accredited tomorrow but there are procedures for everything and we must follow them, not just because of the political exigency.”
