The International Press Centre (IPC) has condemned in strong terms, the brutal attack on the General Manager, JAMZ 100.1FM, Ibadan, Mr. Tony Awobode, reportedly carried out by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and his men from the Eleyele Police station in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
IPC condemned the attack in a press statement issued by IPC’s Program Manager, Stella Nwofia.
The attack on the journalist has occurred after the DPO stopped Awobode popularly known and addressed as Don Tee who was riding on a power bike alleging that his car mirror was hit by the power bike as the JAMZ FM GM was trying to cross towards the Aleshinloye axis.
While explaining to the Chairman of the Oyo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Don Tee stated that he was attacked more as he tries to explain that there is no mark or sign of friction on the side mirror.
Don Tee, according to the report, described his ordeal this way: “it was a case of arbitrary use of naked power”.
The Executive Director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, expressed shock over yet another police brutality against a media professional and the unending nightmares such acts continue to constitute for the media in Nigeria.
He further stated that the highhanded and uncivilized manner in which some elements in the Nigeria Police handle issues with journalists represents nothing but the continuing gross violation of their fundamental human rights.
IPC, therefore, demands that all the perpetrators of the attack on Don Tee should be fished out and prosecuted in addition to the payment of adequate compensation and settlement of the medical bills of the victim.