Journalists covering court proceedings in Nigeria have come under heavy attacks by secuirty operatives.
According to Akinwale Akintunde of ThisDay, there has been a third case of a bitter assault on reporters by secuirty operatives within a short time frame of 6 weeks which threatens the provisions of the Nigerian constitution on press freedom.
According to The Nation, a prison warder, Mr A.A. Teriba, yesterday attacked Mr Adebisi Onanuga of The Nation for attempting to take the photograph of a condemmed bricklayer.
As Onanuga attempted to take Adebowale’s photograph, the warder pounced on him and directed him to hand over his Blackberry phone. Leaving the condemned man unguarded, Teriba punched Onanuga on the chest, tore his shirt and removed three of the buttons.
When he (Onanuga) passed the phone to Gbenga Adewoye of the AIT/RayPower, Teriba turned to him and punched him also on the chest in an attempt to forcibly take the phone from him.
The incident attracted court officials, lawyers and security officers. All efforts to settle the matter were rebuffed by Teriba, who boasted that he was ready to take it up to Abuja.
It took the intervention of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mrs. Idowu Alakija, to bring the situation under control. The incident was reported to the high court Chief Registrar, Mr. Emmanuel Ogundare, who summoned the prison warders, including Teriba to his office.
It was learnt that the chief registrar advised them against such acts in future. A public call has been made to government agencies to re-orientate their members to respect the freedom of press and investigative journalism to prevent future occurrences of the ugly situation.
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