It was the turn of the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) to taste the bitter pill of demolition yesterday as officials of the Development Control Department of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) allegedly acting on the directive of the FCT Minister Senator Bala Mohammed demolished the Abuja secretariat of the union.
District officer in charge of Utako district, who simply identified himself as Mr. Bature, led a truck load of armed mobile policemen and another bus full of thugs on the exercise.
Bature, who appeared to be in a hurry to carry out the exercise had instructed the driver of the bulldozer to go on with the exercise even when some members of the union who were at the council tried to find out the basis for the demolition, boasting that “nobody can stop me from doing my work even if you are the media or whatever you call yourself.”
This was just as he ordered the armed men to manhandle and seize cameras of photojournalists who tried to take snap shots of the demolition exercise, leaving two of them, Rotimi Osasona of National Mirror Newspapers and Gbenga Olamikan of the Vanguard, who are now receiving treatment at a private clinic with various degrees of injury.
The union members later moved to the Wuse Zone 6 office of the development control department to seek answers to the invasion of their premises and demolition of parts of their secretariat where the director in charge of the department, Yahaya Yusuf who spoke with council officials feigned ignorance of the demolition, insinuating that the district officer had acted on his own.
The cameras of the duo earlier seized by the police were later recovered from the department but were badly damaged with their memory cards removed from them.
In a swift reaction, the NUJ described the demolition of structures in its premises as an affront on press freedom and abuse of power by officials of the FCTA, stressing that the council would pursue the matter until justice is served.
Acting chairman of the council, Abdulrasheed Abdulkareem, who signed the statement, described the incident as unfortunate and one of the many sad developments against journalists in the country.
He listed items lost in the unfortunate incident to include; six transparent refrigerators, a four feet Thermocool freezer, a 32 inch LCD set and several plastic chairs and tables. Other items include several crates of drinks, drinking glasses and a stereo set.
The acting chairman said the union would pursue for the development control to compensate for all that was lost during the demolition while calling for the sanction of the officer who ordered that journalists be assaulted.