From Ali Abare Abubakar, Lafia
Members of the Nasarawa state chapter of the correspondents’ chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) have resolved to boycott activities of the state Police Command over the detention of a Daily Trust reporter.
The chapel arrived at the decision on Monday, at the end if its emergency congress, which held at the Laura Plaza secretariat of the union.
In a communiqué, issued at the end of the congress, signed by Suleiman Abubakar and Isaac Okpoju, chairman and secretary respectively, the chapel maintained that it will continue to boycott police activities in the state until the command writes an individual apology to Hir Joseph, the journalist detained as well as the mother union, the NUJ.
It regretted that the Daily Trust reporter was wrongly detained while going about his constitutional responsibility, with the action by the police violating his individual human right.
Explaining further, Hir alleged he was detained by the police over his refusal to disclose his police sources, a situation, he said, infuriated his interrogators, leading to his being put into a cell among hardened criminals at the state headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Hir was variously detained for nine hours, starting from last Friday, after he wrote a story alleging policewomen taking part in the ‘SaveOurGirls’ protest, organised by women’s groups in Lafia.
The reporter was eventually charged to court and was granted bail, with June 19 slated for hearing.
