By Muyideen Aliyu, llorin
A multi-media journalist with the lmage Merchant promotion,(IMPR), the publishers of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential, Salis Manaja, who was kidnapped on October 13, ha regained freedom after a 10 days in captivity.
This was made known by the founder, IMPR, Mallam Yushau Shuaib while speaking last weekend in llorin on the sidelines of hazzards facing journalism practice and the annual young communication fellowship programme organised by IMPR
Shuaib said Manaja was abducted by gunmen while on his way to Ilorin from Abuja to participate in IMPR’s annual young communication fellowship programme.
The public relations expert said the victim was discovered missing when other colleagues arrived llorin, only to discover that manaja had not arrived, as several attempts to contact him was unsuccessful as his phone was not unreachable
Shuaib urged the young journalist and graduate fellows to continue to tell positive stories about Nigeria no matter the situation in the country, pointing out that, every profession had it’s high and low points
“No matter the situations in the country, they should always champion democratic advancement, they should ensure proper narratives and fact checking of their stories before publications”, he said .
The media expert lamented that “social media is fast taking over fact checking”, saying it was one of the reasons the organisation engaged the youth on how best to use technology for positive reasons.
He said during the week long training, the young journalist were able to interact with experts from America and Germany due to the technology provided by NITDA at the PR Nigeria training centres located in Ilorin, Kano and Abuja.
Shuaib urged the Nigeria youths to take advantage of the facilities at the centre to advanced their technology and ICT capabilities to measure up with emerging demands in the world of Artificial intelligence.
Earlier, A professor of Mass communication at the university of Ilorin, Saudat Sallah Abdulbaqi, stressed the importance of strategic communications as a tools to enhance effective communications.
She remarked that the era of fake and unsubstantiated news materials could no longer be accepted with the fact checks and other social media apparatus which serves as a vehicles for an objective reporting and public relations practices.
The PRNigeria young communication fellowship is an annual capacity-building programme held in Kano, Abuja, and Ilorin had trained over 20 young journalists and communicators with another 10 billed to be trained in Abuja.