Inadvisability Of Turning Benin City To Journalists’ Graveyard

ISAAC ASABOR

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There is no denying the fact that not a few people, particularly in Edo State, are aware that tragedy struck on Christmas eve in Benin City as a Journalist, Hillary Nosa Odia, who was a staff of the Independent Television and Radio (ITV) was reportedly murdered by suspected cultists who shot him point blank at a pub near Esigie Police Station in the heart of the state capital.

While reports indicate that Nosa, as the broadcast journalist was popularly called, was murder by suspected cultists around 2nd East Circular Road, in Benin City, one of his colleagues explained that the deceased left his office at about 4pm on Sunday, and that the news of his demise came as a rude shock later in the night to those who were with him within the ITV premises earlier in the day.

The death of Nosa is particularly worrisome to not a few people as it resonates with virtually everyone who heard about the death of Joshua Edeghagba, a Crime Reporter with Radio Nigeria, Benin City who was in a similar brutal manner murdered in 2012, and that of Lawrence Okojie of the NTA, Benin City who was also murdered by unknown gunmen in a similar brutal manner on July 8, 2017 while returning home from work.

It will be recalled that the killing of Edeghagba was spectacular as his killing in 2012 brought the total number of journalists killed in the state in a spate of one month to five.

The slain journalist was felled in the cross-fire between men of the Nigeria Police and gunmen who were engaged in a robbery operation.

He was allegedly shot by the gunmen who shot sporadically into the air in a shootout with policemen after a robbery operation the Lagos Street end of the busy Dawson Road, Benin City.

Sources at the time said the journalist was caught in the scene after he left his mechanic’s workshop on the same road, where he had gone to drop the car he newly bought from the mechanic with complaints of major faults.

He was said to have heeded the advice of the mechanic to bring the vehicle to his shop and actually did so but was on a motorbike heading home when he met his untimely death in the hands of the dare-devil gunmen.

Edeghagba, a father of three who joined the Radio Nigeria in 2011, a federal government-owned broadcast station, was reputed to be abreast of crime reporting.

Given the foregoing untoward happenings, which are not peculiar to the State, as similar deaths have been witnessed in other parts of the country, it cannot be mistaken to opine that there is an increasing threat to journalists in Benin City as there are near-death experience of other Journalists who might had in the past escaped from the hands of cultists or common criminals by the whiskers, and of which such cases were under-reported to elicit write-ups such as this.

In fact, opining in the same vein, it is expedient to sound the alarm that Journalism is by each passing day becoming an increasingly dangerous profession across the country, and that many have lost their lives or were maimed in the course of duty.

In fact, it will be recalled that in the past when Nigeria was in turn ruled by military dictators, cases of journalists being illegally arrested, and detained for so long were commonplace.? But despite the fact that brutal dictatorships are no more featuring in the ongoing democratic system of government, it is sad that the lives and limbs of journalists, and even their lives are still under severe threat, as those in government who ought to protect Journalists are feeling unconcerned probably anyone that is closely related to them has not been brutalize or killed as a Journalist.

Perhaps not many appreciate the sacrifices many journalists make, and the risks they face in bringing information to the public and exposing criminal activities. Sometimes they do so not only at personal risk but to that of their families as well. But how can the society protect journalists and make their job a safer one? The foregoing is a question which cannot be easily answered as the nation is increasingly becoming averse to Journalists, particularly in the course of duty.

Perhaps the safety of journalists would only be guaranteed when we bring an end to all scourges facing society and that does not seem possible in the near future.

In fact, as it will not augur well for his death to add to the list of other Journalists whose deaths have been shrouded in mystery, it is expedient to urge the governments; both at the state and federal levels to hearken to the collecting voice of Journalists in the state under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) as they demand justice over the death of Nosa.

In fact, despite the hyperbole that exists in the society today about what is or what may not be fake news, journalism plays a strong part in forming Nigeria’s national identity, particularly with the advent of the internet, journalism jobs have changed in type and scope over the last two decades more than ever before.

Therefore, while justice is been waited over the brutal murder of Nosa, it is expedient to remind the society that journalists are of benefits to them on daily basis as they are not just news gatherers and writers but are essentially the watchdogs of the society and are collectively by virtue of that the most visible custodians of the constitutional rights of everyone; whether the police, the cultists and whosoever. This also means that prior restraint, which is the act of to killing a story or preventing story from being published or broadcast, is also eschew by ethical Journalists. Thus, by their very jobs, journalists are preserving the right to free speech in the country.

To those that usually see Journalists as threats, it is germane in this context to enlighten them that journalists are not mischievous, rather they work round the clock by abiding by the code of ethics of the profession even as they operate within the ambit the four tenets of the profession which all journalists abide with, and which cut across seeking the truth and report it, minimizing harm through their reports. Not only that, they seek the truth and report it, act independently, and being accountable and transparent in the course of news gathering.

In fact, it is absurd that Edo state that obviously has far less population of practicing Journalists compared to Lagos State appears to be having higher mortality rate of Journalists, and it is against the backdrop that it is germane to urge security agencies and the governments that it is inadvisable of turning Benin City to Journalists’ Graveyard.

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