The journalist Emmanuel Nwazue, who works at Afia TV, was allegedly assaulted by the security guards while he was monitoring the strike declared by the labour unions.
A journalist in Abia State was on Monday allegedly attacked and assaulted by two security guards attached to the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in Umuahia, the state capital.
The journalist Emmanuel Nwazue, who works at Afia TV, was assaulted by the security guards while he was monitoring the indefinite strike declared by the labour unions.
How it happened
Mr Nwazue told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that he was interviewing "ordinary Nigerians" to get their thoughts on how the industrial action was affecting them when the guards accosted him.
The journalist said he approached some bank customers in the area and requested to interview them a few miles away from bank premises after he observed that some of them appeared frustrated.
"The reason for asking them (the interviewees) to move miles away was to prevent my camera from capturing any bank building. Only the FCMB signpost and that of the Keystone bank were captured by my camera just to show that I was in a banking environment and they are bank customers," he said.
He said mid-way into the interview, the security guards stormed the scene and disrupted the interview.
"When they disrupted the interview, I tried to leave, but they stood in my way and said I would not leave until I handed my camera over to them.
"But I resisted. I shoved one of them aside to leave, and they pushed me, and before I knew what was happening, they started beating me," Mr Nwazue narrated, recalling that he was hanging his microphone and camera on his neck while the beating was ongoing.
"They continued pushing me, beating me from side to side until I fell. I fell on the main road, and an on-coming vehicle nearly crushed me," he stated.
The journalist said he was only rescued by some passers-by and other witnesses, including the resident he interviewed.
'Camera damaged, ankle dislocated'
Mr Nwazue said aside from his camera, which the guards damaged during the assault, he suffered ankle dislocation during the incident.
"When I was freed from their grip, I noticed that my camera battery chamber was no longer closing --- they had damaged it. I had an ankle dislocation. In fact, that night, I could not get home unaided. It was another journalist who drove me home because I couldn't walk.
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"Prior to that time, I had a medical condition - lumbar spondylosis. I had spent over N1 million treating myself. So, I was just recuperating, and these people want to send me back to the wheelchair," he said.
The journalist said he had reported to his media outfit and also to the police in Abia State.
Bank silent
When contacted on Thursday, the Group Head, Corporate Affairs of the FCMB, Diran Olojo, asked Adeola Aladejokun, another staff member of the Corporate Affairs Unit of the bank, to respond to enquiries from PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr Aladejokun promised to comment on the incident at 4 p.m. He would call back an hour later and ask for more time to respond but failed to do so more than four hours later.
