By Ovie Okpare
A former chairman of the Warri Correspondents’ Chapel of the Delta State council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Barr. Akpokona Omafuaire, on Saturday narrowly escaped death when policemen from Ovwian/Aladja Police station macheted him on his way to work.
Omafuaire, also a lawyer, is a senior correspondent of the Vanguard Newspapers, one of the leading national dailies in the country.
The journalist was waylaid by the irate policemen by the junction of his street near the police station and was thoroughly beaten by the operatives.
The incident happened at about 9am on Saturday, the Vanguard journalist told our correspondent on phone.
Narrating the incident, Omafuaire said he had identified himself to the policemen numbering eight and led by one sergeant Godspower attacked him with machetes and guns.
Omafuaire, who sustained injuries as a result of the torture, also had his car destroyed by the policemen.
He said one of the officers threatened to kill him during the disagreement as they accused him of violating the state-wide curfew declared by the state governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
Governor Okowa had while declaring the curfew exempted essential workers including journalists from the restriction of movement owing to the violence that greeted the #EndSARS protests across the country.
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Meanwhile, the Delta NUJ has condemned the attack on Omafuaire by men of the Ovwian/Aladja Police Division, stressing that journalists were exempted from the curfew by the state government.
The union in a statement jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary, Comrades Michael Ikeogwu and Patrick Ochei, demanded that the erring officers should be arrested and prosecution over the assault on its member.
It called on the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Hafiz Inuwa to immediately fish out the policemen involved in the molestation of the journalist and destruction of his car and appropriately sanction them.
The Union further reminded the CP that journalists are part of those on essential duty as enunciated and clarified by the Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa in his address while declaring the 48 hours curfew to restore sanity in the state after hoodlums hijacked the #EndSARS Protest to destroy Government facilities and properties.
“Journalists should not be objects of attacks by the police while carrying out their legitimate functions. The #EndSARS protesters are attacking journalists and media houses and at the same time the police are assaulting us. Where do we run to?
“We insist that the Police Commissioner must fish out Sergeant Godspower and other accomplices in this show of extreme power, otherwise we will severe ties with the police in the State”, the statement read.
The statement, however, maintained that the crisis which birthed the global #EndSARS protests was caused by irate police officers such as the one who attacked the Vanguard journalist through reckless and brutal illegal actions against Nigerians.
The Union warned that it would no longer tolerate assault of its members by erring police officers who continue to paint the country in a bad light.
