Punch Reporter Narrates How Police, DSS Brutalised Him In Abuja

A Punch reporter, Friday Olokor, has narrated how he was allegedly brutalised by operatives of the Nigerian Police and Department State Services (DSS) on Thursday in Abuja.

Olokor said he was invited to cover a panel of discussion at the ongoing African Council of Women Conference with the theme: Factors and driver of Gender-Based Violence in Nigeria, organised by the DRPC, under the Ford Foundation, when he was assaulted.

He narrated, “I drove to the venue, M & M Events Centre, Abuja, close to NICON Luxury in Central Business District. After introducing myself, the Mopol stopped me at the gate and said I should get entrance tag.

“I told him I can only get the tag from the people who invited me. Still, he refused. I had to call Patience Ihejirika of Leadership Newspapers who came, gave me my tag.”

Olorko noted that the officer had described journalists as the problem of the country and threatened to deal with him, if he was not on his uniform.

He continued, “He said I wasn’t going in. It was during this time that the DSS operatives pounded me, tore my shirts. One of them tried severally to clear me, but I was jumping. They were joined by police officers.

“They said I should sit down, I stood up. I was handcuffed! They seized the phone belonging to Patience Ihejirika, deleted the videos and photos of the incident, while one of the police officers threatened to beat her up.

“I called a senior officer in DSS who happened to be my friend right from school. Even when he tried to speak with them, they refused. ‘Tell him we’re not talking with him. Olokor, I’m from Delta, when we get home, we discuss man to man’, one of them said. One wonders whether there’s no discipline in the DSS.”

Reacting to the incident, the Nigeria Union of journalists (NUJ) condemned the attack and described it as reprehensible.

The chairman, FCT council of the NUJ, Emmanuel Ogbeche, in a statement, frowned on “the low-life conduct of the officers and personnel in question.”

Ogbeche said, “The idea that any policeman and SSS operative will lay their hands on any journalist as is the unfortunate case of Friday Olokor speaks to why Nigeria ranks poorly in the Freedom Index.

“The NUJ will pursue this matter and hopes that those found wanting in this despicable act are brought to book.

“It seems there is now State policy targeting the media and journalists in this country. There is the urgency for all well-meaning Nigerians to not only condemn this travesty, but all assault on the right to freedom of expression and of the media”.