- As DPO watches men brutalize three Delta journalists
“I will kill you and spend only one year in jail”, these were the exact words of E.K Emmanuel, a police officer attached to Ughelli ‘A’ Division of the Nigerian Police, Delta state command to three journalists he and his colleagues brutalized under the supervision of the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, CSP Asanaenyi Ibok.
The attacked Journalists are; Andrew Unutame of Galaxy TV, Joel Grandball of Pointer Newspaper and Michael Veloh of an online news platform, Politicsgovernance.com. They were attacked while covering the town hall meeting between APC governorship candidate, Sen Ovie Omo-Agege and some selected religious leaders at St Lazarus Christ Church, Ughelli.
The attack on the journalists was carried out at Oduaran street in Ughelli North local government area of Delta state.
After allowing his men to have their free day on the journalists, the DPO asked the three journalists to see him in his office the next day.
Narrating their ordeal at the hands of police officers, Comrade Andrew Unutame of Galaxy TV said, “I am and my other colleagues, Joel Grandball, Pointer, and Michael Veloh Politicsgovernance.com an online news platform were returning from an event and encounter a hold up at Oduaran street junction.
“I came down from the vehicle to control the traffic to ease movement and to my surprise, the officer with the name tag, E.K Emmanuel and others cracked their guns threatening to shoot me.
“My colleagues who came down from the vehicle were also attacked and brutalized with gun boots, the shoes of Michael Veloh were destroyed, while Joel Grandball was hit on his right eye.
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Narrating his ordeal, Joel Grandball of the Pointer Newspaper said, “When I saw how the police were hitting my colleague, I went to plead with them at Oduaran junction that we are here to help in controlling the traffic, but before I could finish talking, same E.K Emmanuel slapped me, and his colleague hit me on the stomach with the boot of his gun.
“As that was not enough, while we were narrating to the DPO, they came beating us in his presence, Emmanuel and others descended on me like a common criminal.
“E.K Emmanuel and other officers in the presence of the DPO threatened to kill us and nothing would happen, while another officer in plain uniform said that he will only serve a year if he kills any of us.
“The Divisional Police Officer, CSP Asanaenyi Ibok who could not resolve the issue asked us to see him in his office tomorrow (Tuesday)”
“We are calling on the Inspector General of Police, Delta State Commissioner of Police, Ari Mohammed Ari to investigate the matter and bring to book the police officer, E.K Emmanuel to save the life of journalists in the state.
“Today it has happened to us in Ughelli, and probably it might also happen to our other colleagues that are on official assignment just like us. As we have some bad element in the police force like E.K Emmanuel and his like.”
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