15th May, 2012
Media practitioners in Nigeria have been advised to be more security conscious and at a time when the fundamentalist Islamic sect, Boko Haram have now made them targets of attack.
The Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Muhammed Indabawa gave the charge to media Executives in Port Harcourt today during an interactive session with them at the Police officers mess.
The CP who lamented why the media houses and its practitioners are now targets of the fundamentalist Islamic sect, said: .”I don’t know why they are after the media houses and media practitioners are now made targets. You people are just doing your jobs. Like the attack on the media in Kaduna and Abuja, a lot of innocent people died.”
The police boss who said the interactive section was called at the instance of the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, advised media executives present to go back and sensitise their staff and security men on the need to be security conscious, and offered to assist the media houses in training their staff on basic security tips.
In their response, media practitioners expressed concern about their safety and they were offered some useful suggestions by Ndabawa on how to protect their lives and property.
A cross-section of the media executives based in Rivers State attended the parley including, General Managers of Rivers state Newspaper Corporation, Publishers of The Tide, Rivers Television, Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, Silverbird, Africa Independent Television, AIT, Radio Port Harcourt FM and TheNews Magazine/P.M.NEWS.
Meanwhile, the CP also confirmed that the state Command has arrested and detained 6 policemen, one senior police officer and 5 others who allegedly beat up a police corporal for preventing them from extorting money.
—Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt