By Chioma Obinagwam
On April 2, 2020, men of the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police invaded the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Jimeta, Adamawa State, where reporters were filing their reports using the facility’s internet services there and brutalised them.
Media Rights Agenda, a non governmental organisation (NGO) with focus on freedom of expression, access to information and media development/persecutions, told Confiance News on Thursday.
“They brutalized 12 journalists, including the state chairman of the NUJ, Mr. Ishaku Dedan, after which they forcibly took the journalists to a SARS’ detention facility where they were held until their release,” the NGO disclosed.
According to Media Rights Agenda, the Officer in Charge of SARS in Adamawa State reportedly breezed into the NUJ press centre and started making phone calls and within few minutes six Toyota Hilux vans filled with heavily armed policemen arrived and invaded the centre. They beat up the journalists and forced them into their vehicles with which they took the journalists away.
They were released after two hours detention on the directive of the Commissioner of Police, Audu Adamu Madaki, who also directed the police officers involved in the arrest to apologize to the NUJ within three days.
“Ironically, while SARS operatives were brutalizing and arresting the journalists who were apparently engaged in their professional pursuits at the NUJ secretariat, a place of business for media professionals, on a false allegation that they were socializing, a birthday party for one of the police officers was actually going on at about the same time at the police officers mess located on Galadima Aminu Way in the same town with over 100 people in attendance,” the NGO disclosed.
