An Ebonyi State lawmaker representing Afikpo South West Constituency in the State House of Assembly, Nkemka Onuma, and a Commissioner-nominee, Stanley Okoro Emegha, on Tuesday jointly attacked some journalists.
The duo, allegedly with their political thugs, launched the attack on the journalists at the State Assembly complex, Nkaliki Road, Abakaliki, while they were covering the screening of the Commissioner-nominees by the House.
They further held one of the journalists hostage inside the Assembly premises as they instructed the gateman to lock the gate against him.
Recall that Governor David Umahi had recently sent names of commissioner-nominees to the State Assembly for screening and confirmation.
The attack occurred while some journalists were trying to interview Emegha, whose academic documents were discovered to be fraught with irregularities.
During his screening, the Speaker of the House, Francis Nwifuru, had noticed that Emegha’s year of graduation from primary school did not correspond with the year he started secondary school as contained in his documents.
Nwifuru and other lawmakers had asked him to explain how he started secondary school a year before he graduated from primary school as stated in his result but he could not give any reasonable answer.
Narrating the incident, one of the journalists and State Correspondent of The Nation Newspaper, Ogochukwu Anioke, said he witnessed the lawmakers having an altercation with some journalists who confronted him for trying to stop them from interviewing the Commissioner-nominee after the screening.
Anioke had approached the scene to broker peace when the two politicians swooped on them with their thugs, inflicting injuries on them.
Anioke narrated further: “As the lawmaker was shouting on top of his voice, his boys joined him and attacked one of the journalists, Samson Nwafor, of the Nigerian Pilot Newspapers.
“They hit him very hard on his chest and he fell down.
“At this point, I intervened and joined in separating the fight.
“The noise also attracted some Police Officers working in the Assembly who came and helped to restore calm.
“Later Mr. Stanley Emegha came and pleaded with the journalists to forgive the lawmaker and the thugs who attacked them.
“At that point, one of the thugs who was with him came and started shouting again, threatening the journalists to go and write whatever they wanted.
“He also threatened to beat us up and warned that we should leave the Assembly premises.
“With that, I became unconformable and made to enter my car but his boys came and held my car door and dragged me out.
“One of them came from behind and hit me on the back of my head while others joined in the beating.
“I managed to extricate myself from them and entered my car but this time, the Commissioner-nominee himself came and held my car door.
“I started the car nonetheless and drove off, forcing him and others with him to leave the door.
“But as I got to the gate, they told the gateman to lock the gate and not to allow me leave.
“They swarmed around my car, trying to forcefully open its door but they couldn’t.
“Some were hitting the glasses with their hands trying to break it.
“At that point, the Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Mr. Tony Nwizi, came and instructed the security men to open the gate, which they did, and I managed to escape to safety.”
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