Lassa Fever: FCT Police Command Arrest, Parade Journalists On Lawful Duty
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Suspected pranksters of Coronavirus being paraded in Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Police Command have arrested, detained and paraded five journalists of TheNigerian News and TeleVision Nigerian, an online news platform, while performing their lawful duties.
The arrested journalists were initially alleged by Director of Public Health, Dr Josephine Okechukwu, of being pranksters, who had gone to Wuse District Hospital claiming that one of them had been infected with Coronavirus.
But in the latest twist of events, employer of the journalists has faulted the position of the police and FCT authorities, insisting that they are innocent of the allegations against them.
According to a statement from the management of TheNigerian News signed by Lawrence Audi, the journalists were arrest in Wuse District of Abuja while gathering report on Lassa Fever in the FCT.
The journalists including Pricilla Ajeshola, Jacob Orji, Abayomi Adedoyin, Peggy Shande and David Gold Enemingin were said to have been arrested, detained on the instructions of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Bello, as persons attempting to cause panic in the nation’s capital.
Audu said, ”These innocent citizens were illegally arrested around the Wuse District Hospital where they were gathering materials for a special report on Lassa Fever and Coronavirus.
”We made every attempt to persuade the police who saw reasons for amicable resolution of this with the affected authorities.
“Unfortunately, the minister blatantly refused to yield to reason as his staff insisted on parading these patriotic citizens like common criminals.
”This repressive attack on the media was ostensibly an attempt to suppress facts as to the FCT administration’s handling of the outbreak of Lassa Fever and Coronavirus that have put the world and citizens all over the country on alert.
”The decision of those behind this humiliating episode to go this route of repression and maligning of the journalists is most unfortunate since TheNigerian News is not in the practice of undermining the country, our strict consideration of national interest is a cardinal principle for our organisation and staff all over the world.
“A visit to our websites and social media handles will present all these facts. If these overzealous agents ever cared to check the facts before embarking on this shameless acts against our staff they would have been convinced otherwise.
”If the authorities had issues with the mode the journalists went about gathering materials for their report, the logical thing to do was to correct them as opposed to taking the repressive measures that now strongly suggest that residents of Abuja are being lied to in the territory’s status in relation to the Lassa Fever outbreak or even the deadly Coronavirus.”
The management of the media outfit said contrary to what the FCT Minister or any other person wants to say, TheNigerian News in its three years of existence had only promoted the image and reputation of Nigeria and never involved itself in spreading falsehood.
They called on the FCT administration to immediately retract its stand on the arrested staff because they are journalists going about their duty to sensitise the general public about the Lassa Fever epidemic across the country.
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