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Ekiti NUJ condemns alleged attack on journalists by FUOYE workers

By Ayodele Afolabi, Ado-Ekiti
23 January 2020   |   2:08 am
THE Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ), Ekiti State Chapter, has condemned the alleged attack by some workers of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) on journalists invited to cover a protest on workers’ demands at the institution.

The Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ), Ekiti State Chapter, has condemned the alleged attack by some workers of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) on journalists invited to cover a protest on workers’ demands at the institution.

The state NUJ Chairman, Rotimi Ojomoyela, in a statement in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, warned that the union would not tolerate any attack on journalists under any guise and for whatever reasons.

Ojomoyela noted that his colleagues were invited by the unions of the institution to cover a protest and were attacked by the people that invited them, describing such as irresponsible and reckless.

He, therefore, urged the union leaders to fish out the perpetrators of the dastard act, failure which, the union would not hesitate to blacklist the activities of Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) of the institution.

The alleged attack happened at the entrance of the institution when the journalists went to cover the protest by the workers over non-payment of their hazard allowance, Christmas bonus, salaries and some other allowances spanning two years.

The workers, under the aegis of NASU and SSANU, trooped out in their large number but some of them became unruly as they unleashed attack on some broadcast journalists they invited for the coverage of the event. The NUJ alleged that some members of staff were armed with dangerous weapons and some local charms to inflict injury on the newsmen.

However, all efforts by some members of staff who were believed to be the leadership of the university workers to wade into the matter were not successful as the irate workers rebuffed all appeals to calm them down.

Some cameras belonging to the journalists were badly damaged while fleeing for safety as no security operatives were on ground to forestall the mayhem. When contacted for his reaction, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Adeyinka Ademuyiwa, denied knowledge of the attack, saying that he was not around when the protest occurred.

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