Channels TV Reporter Attacked Covering Protest In Rivers

Edith CHUKU

Barely a week after a journalist in Rivers State was arrested and detained for demanding the release of a lady who was wrongly arrested after being dupped of N470,000, another journalist has accused an officer with the state Police command of brutalizing him.

The reporter, Charles Opurum of Channels Television narrated his encounter with a police officer while he was covering the “TakeItBack” protest in Port Harcourt.

The incident which happened on Monday, at CFC flyover, followed the attempt by the Police to disperse youths who were carrying out a peaceful demonstration in demand for the reinstatement of all duly elected democratic office holders.

Opurum told newsmen in an interview that he was beaten, dragged into a police vehicle for carrying out his constitutional assignment.

He said the ‘overzealous’ police officer tried taking his phone from him after pushing him into the police van, even after showing his Identity card to the police officer.

The channels TV Reporter expressed dismay over the incident, wondering how covering a peaceful demonstration as a Journalist could have warranted such attack from the police.

Narrating his ordeal, Opurum said “I was covering the takeitback protest here in Port Harcourt. While they were marching from the Isaac Boro Park towards the federal secretariat, where the police said they had approval to protest, I really don’t know the arrangement between the protesters and the police because it’s not my job, my job is to report on what is happening.

“Along the line, the police started shooting, started firing teargas, somewhere under the CFC flyover, I tried to film what was happening because that’s the job, and an overzealous police man attacked me.

“He dragged me by the shirt, dragged me by the trouser, said who are you? So, I identified myself, I even showed him my ID card, he now said even if you are a Journalist and we tell you not to protest are you not supposed to listen to us? I said I am not protesting, I am here to report on what is actually happening.”

He noted that regardless of his explanations, the officer kept “slapping me and dragging me, he tried to force me into a bus but I said no, I can’t enter this bus because this is not a police van, rather put me in a police van let me know that I am in the custody of the police. So he dragged me to the second van and pushed me inside.

“He tried to take my phone but I resisted and held my phone back.”

Speaking of how he regained his freedom, he said, “When I got into the van and he closed the van, it turned out that the people in the van where members of the CP monitoring unit and they know me, they were even surprised to see me.

“They asked me Charles what happened, what did you do? I said I didn’t do anything I was just filming, observing what was happening. After waiting for like five minutes they said you can go, please just be careful and they apologized to me for their colleague arresting me, they actually apologized to me. That’s how I was released. That’s basically the summary of what transpired between myself and the police in the line of duty.”