The President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Chris Isiguzo has called on Nigerian security agencies to arrest and prosecute gunmen that shot the Kogi State Correspondent of The Sun Newspaper, Emmanuel Adeyemi, in Lokoja during the recent #EndSARS protests.
Isiguzo made the call in Lokoja on Thursday at the grand finale of the Press Week organised by the Kogi State Council of the NUJ.
He 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 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 NUJ president described the role of journalists as pivotal to the emergency of responsible and thriving democracy in Nigeria, stressing media should not be treated as guests to governance but as a critical stakeholders in ensuring good governance.
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 sustained during the crisis.
Going memory lane, Adeiza told the audience at the occasion that “in the looting that followed the#EndSARS protests, NUJ members and our secretariat had no issues because we are not located close to the warehouse.
“As such, the looters have no business coming around the secretariat but unfortunately, the gunmen took over the town on that fateful day, drove 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,” he said.
