REVEALING:
‘We Desire JUSTICE from Nigerian Govt on Shooting of Nigerian Publisher, Samuel Nweze, Beating of Charles Otu’-Committee to Protect Journalists in New York
* ‘I Narrowly Escaped Death for Reporting News as a Journalist in Ebonyi state’-Nweze
* Says: ‘I heard a bang, I felt sharp pains and blood gushing out from my back’
* ‘The assailants threatened to kill me unless I promised not to criticize the government of the southern Nigerian state’
* “Nigerian authorities should show that journalists cannot be viciously abducted, attacked, or shot with impunity”-CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal, South Africa
* ‘We have opened Investigations on Otu’s beating’-Titus Lamorde, commissioner of police for Ebonyi
BY NDUKA ILEMU/CRIME REPORTER, ABAKALIKI
NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT has come under serious criticism and harsh critique for allegedly allowing lawlessness and breakdown of law-and-order to prevail in place of justice in the manner Samuel Nweze, publisher and editor of biweekly ‘The People’s Conscience’ newspaper and Charles Otu, a reporter with the same media outfit were shot, harassed, intimidated and beaten by unknown assailants who warned then to quit criticizing the administrations of Ebonyi state and other southern Nigerian state.
The Commiittee to Protect Journalists in New York (CPJ) made its position known to Nigerian government officials, demanding to know why practicing journalism without fear and favor has become questionable in Nigeria. As a result, they are requesting Nigerian government to ensure justice is done in this matter and the culprits be arrested.
In a press statement released by CPJ in New York, it states that “Nigerian authorities should swiftly bring to justice all those behind the beating of journalist Charles Otu and the shooting of publisher Samuel Nweze, the Committee to Protect Journalists.”
Otu who also doubles as a contributor to Nigeria’s daily Guardian newspaper, told CPJ that men abducted him from the street in Abakaliki, beat him in an Ebonyi state office building, and threatened to kill him unless he promised not to criticize the government of the southern Nigerian state. The attack took place on June 2, the same day that two men shot Nweze, the publisher of the People’s Leader tabloid newspaper, in a drive-by shooting, according to news reports.
Nweze reportedly said: “I narrowly escaped death. I was lucky the assailants who came on a motorcycle missed the target…I heard a bang and I felt sharp pains and blood gushing out from my back.”
Otu told CPJ that his office is directly next to Nweze’s office, and that he believes the gunmen shot Nweze, who did not answer CPJ’s phone calls, in a case of mistaken identity. Otu said that Nweze’s newspaper, the People’s Leader, was generally not critical of the state government.
Otu told CPJ that a group of young men first beat him on the street, then dragged him into a bus which took him to the Cabinet House in Abakaliki, where the men continued beating him with iron bars, canes, and stones while reading a lengthy Facebook post Otu had written arguing that Ebonyi Governor David Umahi Nweze had failed to live up to his campaign promises.
Otu said the men continued to beat him at a nearby police station in an effort to get him to sign a document saying he would leave Ebonyi and not write anything further about the state government. He collapsed before he was able to sign, and that he was taken to the emergency ward of the Federal Teaching Hospital. He told CPJ that he was treated in the hospital.
Requesting justice, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal from Durban, South Africa said Nigerian authorities should show that journalists cannot be viciously abducted, attacked, or shot with impunity, Her words: “We call on police and prosecutors to swiftly bring to justice those who abducted and badly beat Charles Otu and those who shot Samuel Nweze.”
Meanwhile, Executive governor of Ebonyi state did not respond to CPJ’s phone calls seeking comment, but reportedly said the attackers should be “arrested and prosecuted.”
Titus Lamorde, commissioner of police for Ebonyi, told CPJ that police had opened an investigation into Otu’s beating, “We want the intimate details of what happened. I was unaware that Nweze, the publisher, had been shot.”
