Following the bomb explosions that rocked the capital city of Jos, while Journalists went there to do the reporting of that event, a Galaxy TV Correspondent, known as ‘King Richard,’ was reportedly molested, then had his camera vandalized, and the memory card removed by military personnel at the instance of the Special Task Force commander, Major General David Enetie.
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The Army General was not worried about the video ‘shots’ of the scene that was taken and spread internationally. Yet, he queried why the journalist should take his picture, randomly, without his permission. When asked what happened at the filming around the Jos bombing, Mr. King said, “the police commissioner was granting me an interview, advising the general populace not to rush to the scene of any explosion, because there could be a secondary explosion waiting to happen.”
King went on to what immediately followed, telling a SaharaReorters correspondent, “I saw the STF commander coming toward us (our camera crew.) I decided to turn the camera from the CP, to get a shot of the STF commander, with the hope that he would also grant me an interview, since he was walking toward us. As he got (closer) to me, he started yelling, with a threat to beat me up.
While cursing and yelling at him, King said, he heard the commander say, ‘I go beat you ooo, I go beat you ooo.’ Adding in our interview that, “his orderly descended on me from behind, hitting me. As my camera was being vandalized, the memory device was removed, and taken away by Capt. Ikidichi Iweha, media officer of the STF. If he didn’t want his picture taken, or be interviewed, why was he walking up to me, while I was conducting an interview with (the) camera in hand?”
When the matter was reported to the state secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, pandemonium ensued, with a rage that almost stalled the press conference. The news of King’s confrontation with the commander spread among journalists present like wild fire. The commissioner for Information, Olivia Dazyam, who was about to begin the news conference was informed of the altercation.
It took time before frayed nerves could be calmed for her to deliver her press conference. She stated the position of the state government on the twin bomb explosions, condemning it in its totality, and then left the secretariat immediately.
While journalists began to take turns to recount how uniformed men in the state had manhandled them, Mr. Jude, of the Punch Newspaper, said it is time for the NUJ chapter to take a sterner stance on the issue, so as to ensure the safety of the men and women of the Pen Profession.
As the anger was still very much apparent in the air among the assembled reporters, the Plateau police headquarters placed a call, inviting journalists to the force headquarters for a briefing with the police commissioner. But he was told categorically that no journalist will go there, due to what just had happened to a colleague. And so Chris Olakpe, Plateau CP, had to come down to the NUJ Plateau secretariat, to deliver his press briefing.
One of the men in uniform who pleaded with reporters for anonymity, said that Maj Gen. Henry Ayoola, the immediate past STF commander, would never stoop that low, to the point of assaulting a journalist.
During the days of Maj. Gen. Henry Ayoola, as STF commander, journalists enjoyed a cordial relationship with the task force, until the arrival of the man who replaced him, General David Enetie.
Since his September 2013 assumption of the office as the Special Task Force commander in Plateau, General David Enetie has had a running battle with journalists in the state. Sources tell SaharaReporters that the ‘running battle’ got to the point that all the activities of the STF was threatened to be shunned by all members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists. Members of the plateau chapter had brought this to the attention of the national organization at its recent congress, explaining that reporting stories in the Plateau chapter had become ‘challenging,’ due in large part to David Enetie’s hostile attitude towards members of the press.
The beaten and battered correspondent, Mr. King, is currently receiving treatment at an undisclosed location.
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