Abdulmumin Giwa
Some journalists in Kaduna today staged a rally at the Press Center condemning the arrest and remanding in jail of Mr Jacob Dickson a former New Nigeria staff.
Dickson was whisked away by security operatives last week charging him with inciting the public after reporting an incident where the Kaduna state Governor Nasir El-Rufai was said to have been stoned by angry youths at the outskirt of the Badarawa community in Kaduna when he went there to settle a community crisis.
The journalists carried placards with inscriptions like “Journalists are not criminals” and “Free arrested Journalist” written on them as they chanted solidarity songs.
One of the protesters explained that any attempt at clamping down on journalists to stop them from reporting what they see violates the tenets of freedom of speech and subjects the society to chaos.
“There is good and there is bad also there is wrong and there is right and reporting such is what brings about sanity in the society. hence in a situation where the wrongs are barred from being reported then anarchy is promoted as wrong doers are not checked” he lamented.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Kaduna Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, comrade Garba Muhammed said that the NUJ is doing all possible to see that he is released and if he is not, the union will take an active step.
“We cannot watch our member arrested and imprisoned for doing his job in the same manner as we cannot allow our members to incite the public” he said.
abdulmumingiwa 