The National President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Chris Iziguzo, has appealed to the Kogi State Police Command to unmask the unknown gunmen who shot the State Correspondent of the Sun Newspaper, Mr. Emmanuel Adeyemi, on Monday, October 26, 2020 in Lokoja.
Iziguzo made this call during the grand finale of 2020 Press Week of the Kogi State Council of the NUJ, in Lokoja, where he stated that shooting, killings and intimidation of journalists are unacceptable and should not be swept under carpet.
He urged the police to be alive to their responsibilities and bring the current deplorable security situation under control.
The president of the NUJ strongly condemned the ugly trend and said that it is happening under the current democratic experiment, insisting that democracy could not thrive without a free press.
He also pointed out that destroying a free and robust media would amount to destroying the current democratic experience in the country.
Isiguzo advised government to perceive journalists as partner in progress and maintained that any clampdown on the media would be counterproductive and a threat to the survival of democracy in the country.
The chairman of the occasion and Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr. George Moghalu, who was represented by the General Manager Marines Services of the NIWA, Mr. Joseph Ororo, stressed the need for water transportation, which could reduce carnage on the country’s highways.
Moghalu posited that the NIWA has been repositioned to deliver on its mandate with the acquisition of coastal vessels for the delivery of cargoes and the training and retraining of boat operators to ensure reduced incidence of boat mishaps.
