The Nigeria Union of Journalists in the South East has condemned the killing of the Circulation Representative of the Sun newspaper in Onitsha, Anambra State, Fabian Obi, by gunmen on Monday.
Obi was killed by the gunmen who stormed the Sun newspaper office on a motorcycle, demanding for his sales proceeds.
Three vendors who were with him at about 9:20am when the incident occurred, were also injured.
IN a statement on Tuesday, the South East leadership of the NUJ expressed concern over the development, especially at a time when soldiers were deployed to the zone under Operation Python Dance II.
The statement, signed by Comrade Chris Isiguzo, the Vice President; and Comrade Kenneth Ofoma, the Secretary, reads: “The leadership of NUJ, South East Zone received with shock the news of the killing of a Sun Newspaper agent in Onitsha, Fabian Obi by unknown gunmen. This is indeed very tragic. For such to happen at a time the military operation code-named ‘Python Dance 11’ aimed at checking the rising wave of armed robberies, kidnapping and other forms of crimes is still on with soldiers virtually at every nooks and cranny of the five south east states made it more troubling.
“We therefore call on the security agencies to immediately swing into action and fish out those behind this dastardly act as we are not ready to allow this to go the way of other similar unresolved cases in the past.
“We also want to remind the Anambra state government that the primary responsibility of a responsible government is the protection of lives and property. Abandoning this responsibility especially at this critical time when the state is preparing for a major election resulting in the rising wave of insecurity in the state indeed speaks volume of the government’s commitment to security of lives. Let the needful be done as quickly as possible because a stitch in time saves nine.”