OMPAN Decries Military, Police Brutality on Journalists, Citizens in Guise of Lockdown ||| NEWS CORNER

ThankGod  Emeh, Owerri.

Online Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OMPAN) has noticed with dismay, the highhandedness of some security agents who have been caught on tape manhandling journalists stressing that the act is a pure sabotage of the efforts of pen pushers in the country.

The association decried the ugly development in a press release issued by the National Public Relations Officer, Ismaila Y K recently in the wake of online viral videos, pictures and eye witness reports of security operatives meting inhumane treatments on the citizenry especially journalists noted as partners in the pandemic fight and among the eleven groups of essential workers exempted from the lockdown.

According to the release, the association said “It is particularly shocking that instead of commendation, the Nigerian journalists are being battered in clear breach of their rights as professionals going about their national service”

“The only crime committed by these journalists is that they dared the odds to remain in the streets to report COVID-19 response across Nigeria in a selfless show of patriotism”

It also advised that all measures put in place by government be carried out with human face while requesting that journalists be roundly motivated and not harassed in the course of their constitutional duty in society and as regards the fight against Coronavirus pandemic in the country.

“OMPAN will like to also use this opportunity to call on governments at all levels to put together a financial stimulus to support the vital work that journalists across Nigeria are doing, especially with respect to the coverage of COVID-19 response. It goes without saying that journalists are the only other professionals standing side by side, and risking their lives together with health workers to spread hope”

“This is the least government can do to show that it truly values the vital services that journalists render”

OMPAN calls on the Security Chiefs to call their operatives to order noting that journalists are supposed to be protected and not endangered.

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