Former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has warned the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government not to politicize security.
Atiku was responding to the recently released data from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.
Recall that reports emanated that the DSS interrogated the NBS boss over the released data on ransom payment.
Speaking on the invitation of the NBS boss, Atiku noted that suppression of any data on insecurity in the country would be counterproductive.
This was contained in a statement issued by his media office on Thursday.
The former Vice President stressed the importance of accuracy in data and statistics for development purposes.
IVNTVNEWS reports that on December 17, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, disclosed that Nigerians paid a total of N2.23tn as ransom over the 12 months between May 2023 and April 2024.
And in its latest Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey, the NBS revealed that an estimated 51.89 million crime incidents occurred across Nigerian households during the reference period.
According to the Bureau, the statistic highlighted the widespread nature of crime and the growing concerns surrounding security in Nigeria.
However, on Thursday the NBS refuted reports that Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeniran Adeyemi, was summoned for questioning by the DSS. The NBS also stated that the NBS website was not hacked, contrary to the claim in some media reports.
Responding to the development, Atiku stated that the timing of the alleged hack, occurring shortly after the release of troubling security statistics, was suspicious.
“The unprecedented claim that the website of the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has been hacked is an unpleasant development. And that adds up to the bad tidings that have characterized the President Bola Tinubu administration.
“The development, which is coming on the heels of the recent data published on the website of the NBS on Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey, underscores the credibility crisis of the current administration.
The statement read, “These are strange times in Nigeria. And it is hoped that the situation at hand is not an underhand attempt to pigeonhole the integrity of data majorly used for planning and development and research purposes.
“Subjecting data and statistics such as those harvested, analyzed, and released by the NBS to sexing up or political considerations is counterproductive.
“That is why the claim that the website of the National Bureau of Statistics was hacked into, the very first time in its history, should be of concern to the fidelity of the stats it releases to the public.
“Moreover, the coincidence of this so-called hack, coming only shortly after the release of damning stats on security, is suspicious.
“We may be tempted to assume that every stats released by the Bureau is an outcome of a hack.”
source: Punch
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