IPC DECRIES ATTACK ON GM OF JAMZ 100.1FM, DEMANDS COMPENSATION
Oru Leonard
The International Press Centre (IPC) condemns in strong terms last Sunday’s brutal attack on the General Manager, JAMZ 100.1FM, Ibadan, Mr. Tony Awobode, reportedly by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), and his men from the Eleyele Police station in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Western Daily News report of September 21, 2021 stated that: ‘’The incident happened when Awobode popularly known and addressed as Don Tee who was riding on a power bike was stopped by the DPO alleging that his car mirror was hit by the power bike as the JAMZ FM GM was trying to cross towards the Aleshinloye axis”.
Efforts by Don Tee to explain that there no mark or sign of friction on the side mirror led to further attacks on him as he later explained to the Chairman of the Oyo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Don Tee, according to the report, described his ordeal this way: “it was a case of arbitrary use of naked power”.
In a statement, 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.
“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”, he stated.
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.
Media had reported that Mr Awobode, popularly called Don Tee, was riding a power bike along the Alesinloye area of Ibadan on Sunday when the DPO, Akintunde Oyeniran, allegedly claimed his bike hit his side mirror and descended heavily on him.
The DPO, whose sister station was about 200 metres away from the scene of the incident, asked for reinforcement of policemen who also continued the beating as they forcefully took the journalist away and detained him for hours in their facility.
