Police harassment barbaric, provocative, says Lagos Journalists’ League

Ranmilowo Ojalumo
The Lagos Journalists’ League (LJL), a group of conscientious journalists operating in Lagos has described the action of the police who thrown caution into the wind on Tuesday night, harassing journalists as barbaric and provocative.
The Police had thrown caution into the wind on Tuesday night all in the name of enforcing the 8:00 PM to 6:00 AM curfew in the state and arrested journalists, including TVC reporter, Ivy Kanu and harassed others.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday by the group’s Acting Secretary, Enitan Olukotun, LJL queried the rationale behind locking up, detaining journalists who are designated as essential workers for being on the road after 8pm when curfew sets in.
“The police can’t feign ignorance on how pen professionals ply their trade. These Journalists who are rarely appreciated by the society work round the clock to keep the society informed and stabilize the polity by filtering false news.
“It is disheartening that many of our colleagues had to pass the night on major highways across the state with the attendant health and security risks. The high handedness and overzealousness of policemen in enforcing the curfew is rather disturbing even when the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 had earlier given members of the fourth Estate permission to move without harassment”, the statement reads.
The League is therefore demanding an unreserved apology from the police authorities for the act, saying the journalists in the state can as well embark on industrial action if the barbaric action of harassing journalist in the state continues.
“Like other essential professionals who had threatened or embark on industrial action over the harassment, Lagos journalists can also consider similar action if this unfortunate harassment continues unabated”,the LJL said.
The League also draws the attention of the public to dangers inherent in news gathering and processing during this Covid-19 period. “Some of our colleagues had contracted the dreaded COVID-19 virus whilst working to keep the society informed on the novel virus. It is therefore provocative to compensate our colleagues who are working in a very difficult condition with detention and harassment”.