The 14 journalists who were kidnapped on Sunday afternoon by ex-militant Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, have again been detained by operatives of the Nigeria Navy at the NNS Delta, following their framing on arms charges by Tompolo.
The journalists include the South-South Regional Editor of Vanguard, Emma Amaize; South South Editor of Nation newspaper, Shola O'Neil; a reporter with Daily Independent, Emma Arubi; South-South region editor of Leadership, Shola Adebayo, and a Channels cameraman and reporter.
They were said to have been returning from the Delta creeks to cover a massive protest staged by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s kinsmen over the manner Tompolo and his kinsmen have taken the controversial $16billion Export Processing Zone (EPZ) project. It was to have been commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan, but that event was scratched following severe threats by Tompolo and his kinsmen.
The latest twist, SaharaReporters learned, followed arms that were allegedly planted in their boat by Tompolo's loyalists acting on instructions in a bid to frame them and three loyalists of the chairman of Delta Waterways Security Committee, Ayiri Emami.
It has been learned that the continued detention of the journalists by the navy is not connected with Tompolo’s instructions to the presidency and other security agents in Abuja that the journalists were not be released as they had been found with fire arms.
Confiding in SaharaReporters, a close source familiar with the incident revealed that the alleged arms found in the boat were brought and planted there by some loyalists of Tompolo about an hour after the newsmen were kidnapped and taken to his Camp 5 in the creek.
According to our source, Tompolo’s loyalists, all ex-militants, took possession of the cameras and memory cards of the phones and video cameras belonging to the journalists in order to destroy the recorded protest by the Itsekiri people.
Narrating their ordeal to SaharaReporters, one of the kidnapped journalists stated that they were seized near Kpokpo, and their bags, phones, wrist watches, and video cameras carted away.
“We were severely manhandled, especially one of our colleagues, Mr. Emma Arubi because he is an Itsekiri. Emma Arubi who incidentally is an Itsekiri was forced to hold the supposed gun to look as if we are actually in possession of the alleged fire arms. They told us they were sending the pictures to the presidency and would circulate it on social media. They later handed us over to the army and alleged we were with guns.”
It was reliably gathered that through the intervention of the Commanding Officer, NNS DELTA, Navy Captain Musa Gemu, the released journalists were taken to Warri on Monday at about 7:00hours but were again detained following instructions from Abuja and that until further instructions were received, they were to remain detained.
As of the time of this report, unconfirmed reports said the journalists had been released from detention but efforts to reach them proved abortive as their mobile lines were all switched off.
Meanwhile, the Delta State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Warri Correspondents Chapel have called for the immediate release of the journalists by the navy, warning politicians against using journalists to settle political or tribal scores.
The statement, which was signed by Comrade Norbert Chiazor and Michael Ikeogwu respectively, described as a rude shock the alleged abduction by Ijaw Youths of the 14 journalists who were on a legitimate assignment at the Ogidigben site of the proposed EPZ project.
"They were not caught with any weapon as alleged and being used in the social media,” the statement said. “Indeed, the work tools of the journalists were taken from them. We want to categorically state that journalists do not carry weapons of any sort or align with people of dubious means; hence we state that attempts by individuals or group of individuals to smear the exalted journalism profession by peddling falsehood will be resisted by the power of the pen.”
They stressed that journalists have been fair to all the parties involved in the EPZ crisis and all stakeholders in the Warri environment, adding that it was baffling why professionals on a legitimate assignment could be humiliated and brutalized to the extent of guns and ammunition being forced on them.