Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF) is saddened by the attack on Premium Times reporter Samson Adenekan and GeeTV cameraman Offel Nathaniel while covering governorship election in Edo state Nigeria.
A group of unidentified men numbered 50 reportedly attacked the journalists who had separately filmed them attempting to bribe people to vote for their candidate during the just concluded elections on Saturday September 19.
The attackers noticed that the journalists had filmed their activities and demanded that they deleted the videos and pictures, they resorted to threatening, hitting and beating the journalists when they refused heeding their threats.
Reports say the Police officers who were at the scene did nothing to defend or help the journalists while the attack was on going, Adenekan eventually had to give in to save himself while Uffel managed to keep his footage.
AMDF is worried by the continuous attack on journalists in the line of duty while culprits often go free like nothing happened.
We are calling on the Nigerian police to conduct investigations to fish out the men behind the attack on Adenekan and Offel, culprits should be dealt with according to the provisions of the law; this will serve as deterrent to future offenders.
We further call on authority to ensure the safety of journalists who will be covering the forth coming Ondo state governorship elections scheduled for October 10, we demand that safeguarding the lives and property of journalists be made top priority by all security personnel to be deployed to various wards and units during the election.