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Attacks on journalists: Police to review election duty guidelines

THE Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has said it will review its election duty guidelines to ensure protection of journalists during elections.

The Force Public Relations Officer (PRO) Olumuyiwa Adejobi disclosed this while speaking during a Twitter Space organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre on the topic, ‘How safe were journalists during 2023 elections?’

Speaking on attacks on journalists during the polls, Adejobi said the police will review its guidelines to ensure that journalists and observers are given more protection in future elections.

“There was a pocket book we published on election duty guidelines for officers, I think we are going to make an amendment to that. For other elections we want to have, we are going to review these guidelines to include protection of journalists and observers that will be moving up and down on election duty.”

He assured that the NPF is working on cases of attacks on journalists recorded during the election and also called on journalists to bring forward cases that have not been attended to.

“So cases recorded so far, I think some of our commands are on it and they are working on these cases and all I can say is to urge our people (journalists), we always believe that it’s when we publish (reports) that we are fighting it. I don’t want to believe that it’s every case that you must publish even when you publish you need to follow up so that you can have justice in that matter.

“I think we need to learn more. I think in the next election there will be constant training and retraining for all of us. There will be at least a forum for all of us where journalists, security agencies will have a joint forum to be coordinated by INEC itself so that all of us will be on the same page.”

However, he said journalists need to be abreast of relevant laws to avoid running into problems while discharging their responsibilities.

“If you don’t know the law you are going to run foul of the law and there’s no sentiment in law,” he said.

Adejobi also warned against cybercrimes, noting that the Cybercrime Act of 2015 should guide Nigerians, including journalists, on what to post on the social media.

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“I think Nigerians are now aware of the existence of the Cybercrime Act of 2015 and sincerely when you read it you will know that copy and paste can lead you to jail if you are not careful. So I want to urge us to please read this law very well. All these laws are there for us so as to be guided whenever we are discharging our duties as journalists.”

The Force PRO explained that many people pick on journalists when they see them discharging their duties during elections.

“I think the electoral process is a very complex process that’s always very difficult to police or secure. As you know democracy itself is a very difficult thing to police. I want to say that every body including security operatives was a victim one way or the other during the election. Don’t forget that security operatives were attacked one way or the other, not only the journalists.

“But I think the fear of the unknown in Nigeria makes many of us see journalists as our enemies. I don’t know why you decide to just attack a journalist. By mere looking at a journalist people pick offense and say these people have come,” he observed.



He also stressed that the police worked with the International Press Centre to resolve many issues relating to attacks on journalists.

“Over time we can continue to do lectures, training for security operatives and those that come in contact with journalists, not only the security operatives this time around, everybody particularly government people who see journalists as their enemies and it is not supposed to be so.”




     

     

    The Force PRO equally called for the support of journalists and other Nigerians in the campaign against political thuggery in the country.

    Stressing that journalists were not the only ones attacked during the general elections, he noted that police officers and other security operatives as well as ordinary citizens were also brutalised by political thugs.

    “Let me say that we need to see how we want to address political thuggery. Journalists are not the only ones that were attacked, security operatives were also attacked, people were attacked but despite the fact that we have armed men to follow people, they were still being attacked because these political thugs are there.

    “We need to address political thuggery in this country. It is a collective responsibility,” the police spokesperson said.

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    Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M

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