Richard Elesho/ Lokoja
Nigerian security agencies have been tasked to arrest and bring to book anyone who participated in the shooting of Emmanuel Adeyemi, the Kogi State Correspondent of The Sun newspaper during the recent #EndSARS protests.
The President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Chris Isiguzo, made the call in Lokoja on Thursday. He spoke at the grand finale of the Press Week organised by the Kogi State Council of the NUJ.
Isiguzo condemned a situation where journalists are made easy targets of attacks in the course of covering crisis which they knew nothing about. He noted that any attack on a journalist is an attack on democracy.
The NUJ president described the role of journalists as pivotal to the emergence and sustenance of responsible democracy in Nigeria, stressing that the media should not be treated as guests to governance but as critical stakeholders in ensuring good governance.
“The unidentified gunmen that shot our member in kogi state must be identified and made to face the music. We will not accept this type of development any more,” he said.
The state chairman of the union, comrade Momohjimoh Adeiza, in his address of welcome, expressed gratitude to God for saving the life of Adeyemi, whom he said went through a successful surgery, following the gun shot he received during the crisis.
Going memory lane, Adeiza told the audience at the occasion that “in the looting that preceded the#Endsars protests, NUJ members and our secretariat had no issues because we are not located close to the ware house.
“As such, the looters have no business coming around the secretariat but unfortunately, the gunmen took over the town on that fateful day, dove pass through our centre and shot our premises.
“Thank God no one was hit but our colleague, Emmanuel, who was on his way to the office was shot by some people police described as unknown gunmen.
“A successful surgery was done on Emmanuel and he is recovering fast.
Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Mathew Kolawole used the occasion to commend Journalists for their roles in promoting democracy. He urged media to remain firm in defending democracy as the fourth estate of the realm.