A Vanguard Correspondent in Delta State, Comrade Akpokona Omafuaire, on Saturday, received some severe horsewhips from operatives of the Ovwian Police Division in Udu Local Government Area.
The enraged policemen, besides flogging the journalist blue black, also went ahead to damage his car.
“Police assaulted and destroyed my car moments ago.
“I was driving out of my street, they blocked my street entrance and insisted that I cannot go out.
“I told them I am a journalist and showed them ID card; before I knew it, they started attacking me – about eight of them – that I can go and write whatever I like,” Omafuaire narrated to his colleagues.Â
Photos presented to colleagues by the assaulted journalist revealed fresh scars of lashes of horsewhips on his back.
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Meanwhile, the Delta State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), has condemned the attack on Vanguard Correspondent, Comrade Omafuaire by the Ovwian policemen in Warri.
In a statement jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary, Comrades Michael Ikeogwu and Patrick Ochei, the union called on the Delta State Commissioner for Police, Mr. Mohammed Hafiz Inuwa, to fish out the policemen involved in the molestation of the journalist.
The union reminded the CP that journalists were part of those on essential duties as clarified by the Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa in his address while declaring the reviewed 48-hour curfew.
The statement stated that journalists should not be objects of attacks by the police while carrying out their legitimate functions.
The union urged CP Inuwa to find the policeman and his accomplices, otherwise the union would sever ties with the police in the state.Â
The manhandled journalist is, however, receiving medical attention due to multiple injuries inflicted on him.
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