Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), has condemned the attack on
\njournalists covering the ongoing screening of Commissioner nominees in
\nEbonyi state House of Assembly by political thugs numbering over 40.<\/p>\n
The journalists include Correspondent of Nation Newspapers, Mr.
\nOgochukwu Anioke, Correspondent of Pilot Newspapers, Mr. Samson Nwafor,
\ncorrespondent of Blaze 91.5 FM, Mr. Nnaji Emmanuel and Grace Egbo of
\nTribune Newspapers.<\/p>\n
The thugs\u00a0 who were led by the member representing Afikpo South West
\nconstituency in the Assembly, Nkemka Onuma\u00a0 descended on the journalists
\nand inflicted injuries on three of them; Ogochukwu Anioke of the Nation
\nnewspaper, Samson Nwafor of the Pilot Newspaper and a pregnant
\njournalist, Mrs. Grace Egbo of the Tribune Newspaper who was hit on her
\nstomach and face.<\/p>\n
Onuma during the melee, threatened to prevent journalists from covering
\nthe state Assembly, describing them as touts.<\/p>\n
After attacking the Journalists, the thugs also held one of them, Anioke
\nhostage inside the Assembly premises\u00a0 by ordering the gateman to lock
\nthe gate as he made effort to drive out of the Assembly complex in
\nNkaliki road Abakaliki.<\/p>\n
It took the intervention of the Chairman of NUJ, Comrade Tony Nwizi to
\nprevent further attack on the journalists and vandalization of their
\nvehicles by forcefully opening the entrance gate which aided their
\nescape.<\/p>\n
The incident happened after the screening of\u00a0 one of the nominees which
\nwas fraught with some irregularities as the speaker of the House,
\nFrancis Nwifuru noticed that the year of his graduation from
\nPrimary School did not correspond\u00a0 with the year he started secondary
\nschool on his documents.<\/p>\n
Nwifuru had asked him to explain how he started secondary school a year
\nbefore the year he graduated from primary school as stated in his result
\nbut he could not give any reasonable answer to the query.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the attack on the journalists, National President of NUJ,
\nComrade Chris Isiguzo who condemned the action of Onuma and his thugs,
\ndemanded apology for his action.<\/p>\n
He also ordered that the medical bills of the victims should be taken
\ncare of by the lawmaker.<\/p>\n
“I am yet to get the full\u00a0 details of what really happened in Ebonyi
\nstate House of Assembly but if what we read is anything to go by, it is
\nshocking and totally unbecoming for an Honourable member of a House of
\nAssembly to have abandoned his legislative duty to begin to unleash
\nmayhem on innocent journalists in Ebonyi state.<\/p>\n
“It is totally unacceptable to us and we demand that Ebonyi state House
\nof Assembly should not just apologized to those people that were
\nmanhandled, they should also make sure that they are taken care of in
\nthe hospital because I learnt that one or two of those people is already
\nin the hospital. So, they should take care of their bills in the
\nhospital and assured us of their safety in that House of Assembly.<\/p>\n
“There is no way that the legislature which is of course part of the
\ningredients of democracy in governance will still be the one to cause
\ntrouble or problem\u00a0 to the safety of journalists in Ebonyi state. so,
\nthe attack is totally unacceptable and we think in the next couple of
\nhours, the House of Assembly should do the needful”.<\/p>\n
On the threat to prevent journalists from covering activities of the
\nAssembly, Isiguzo said “the lawmaker in question does not have powers to
\nstop journalists from covering the Assembly as he threatened. It is a
\npublic place and it does not belong to that particular lawmaker or the
\nSpeaker. It is a public institution and they don’t have right or such
\npowers to bar any journalist from covering the state House of Assembly,
\nit will never happen. If they try it, we will take the next line of
\naction. They can’t even try it, the lawmaker was only trying to
\ngrandstand”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), has condemned the attack on journalists covering the ongoing screening of Commissioner nominees in Ebonyi state House of Assembly by political thugs numbering over 40.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n