Gov Amosun: Harassment of journalists must stop

The private residence of Ogun State governor - Senator Ibikunle Amosun at the Ibara Government Reserved Area (GRA) of Abeokuta was involved in a fire incident last week. Items including clothes, shoes, electrical appliances and old newspapers were said to have been lost to the fire. Trumpet Ogun commiserates with Amosun and his family on this unfortunate incident.

Equally unfortunate is the sad incident in which a number of journalists who had gone to cover the inferno were harassed by security personnel - reported as being from the State Security Service (SSS) and some aides of Amosun.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reporter - Miss Tomisin Erogbogbo, Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) Abeokuta's Cameraman and BusinessDay's Correspondent - Mr. Razaq Ayinla were prevented from carrying out their duties and had their camera equipment seized for daring to cover the incident while the fire was still razing. There was also another incident involving Nigeria Pilot's Fasasi Sulaiman and security agents. When the equipment were returned to the journalists, pictures and video footage had been deleted from the cameras and the NTA team alleged that its camera had been destroyed.

Trumpet Ogun condemns the harassment of journalists and calls on the SSS and the Ogun State governor to call their staff and aides to order.

Trumpet Ogun believes that it is pertinent for Amosun to publicly condemn this harassment which were carried out by his agents. Anything short of this, will send the unfortunate message that he endorses the action of his agents. This does not augur well for a cordial relationship between the government and the Media - towards building a viable democracy that the State truly deserves.