•How 6 journalists were beaten, battered, stripped in Opu-Nembe, Bayelsa
From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
For six journalists in Bayelsa State, namely, Joseph Kunde (TVC), Awe Baratuapere (NTA), Iniyekenime Doctor Bruce (AIT), Miebi Bina (TVC), Ayebakuro Egein (NTA) and Femi Folaranmi (The Sun), Monday, August 14, 2023, started like a normal day, but the unexpected played out.
Since crisis broke out in the oil-rich Opu- Nembe community, Nembe Local Government Area of the state, triggered by the struggle for economic control and benefits, which has polarised the youth executive in the community and the council of chiefs into factions, no independent body had gone into the community to verify claims of destruction of houses by gangs allegedly at the behest of the youth executive committee. However, with the deployment of a detachment of policemen from Police Mobile Force and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit by the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the arrest of some youths in possession of arms and ammunition, there was hope that the security threat in the community had been downgraded.
Armed with the information that there was adequate police presence in the community, the journalists set out to unravel the truth about claims of a reign of terror in the community prior to the deployment of police operatives.
Folaranmi said: “We got to the community at the time when the deputy governor, Mr. Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, was leaving the community after an on-the-spot assessment tour. This further buoyed our confidence that the climate of fear hanging over the community had been eased. The police team, after verifying that we were journalists, welcomed us and told us we could take a tour of the destroyed houses and talk to the victims, some of whom had returned to the community.
“The tour progressed without any hitch and there was a police van escorting us, until we got to the last house, which belonged to the former regent of the community. We had passed some very narrow roads to get to the particular house, which made it impossible for the police van to follow us.
“The first sign of trouble was the cold look on the faces of some boys who must have felt uncomfortable seeing journalists with cameras and phones taking pictures. Having read loads of espionage books and watched action films, I quickly scanned and did a mental mapping of the area to know where to head in case something untoward happened.
“My intuition that there was trouble on the horizon was not misplaced. I had hardly finished telling my colleagues of the need for us to leave immediately when gunshots rent the air and a horde of hoodlums armed with machetes from the Unity Bridge and all corners swooped on us.
“There was pandemonium and everybody scampered for safety. Residents hurriedly slammed their doors. With the mental map of the area in my head, I did not bother to make a detour but ran as fast as I could towards the police base. Following me was Awe of NTA and when the police saw us running towards them, panting, they got up, corked their guns but I quickly shouted, ‘We are journalists,’ which made them open the barricade for us. Awe would later tell me he never knew I could run the way I did.
“Immediately after we got ourselves back after the flight to safety, we told the commander, DSP A.A. Silas, that four of our colleagues were trapped in the community. He asked what happened and we narrated our experience. Silas was livid that the hoodlums could attack journalists. He was also not happy with his men for dropping the ball such that the attack happened. Immediately, he assembled a team, held a tactical brief and informed them that there were still boys armed with guns in the community and led them to rescue the journalists.
“First to be rescued was Kunde, who had hidden inside a house and was waiting for when it would be safe to come out. Just like the biblical era when Noah sent out a bird to know if the flood had receded, so also Kunde sent out small children three times before they confirmed that it was safe for him to come out.
“Kunde said after the noise died down, he gave the small children in the house he was hiding in some money to see if the coast was clear. According to him, he gave them money thrice before they finally told him it was safe to come out. That was when he came out and met the police.
“With the return of Kunde, the challenge was how to rescue the three others, especially with the pitch darkness that had descended on the community. The phones of Bina and Bruce, which were initially on and which enabled us to talk to Bina to know his location, were no longer reachable, which shot up our anxiety.
“Silas again had a tactical meeting with his men and they decided to embark on the rescue to save the three remaining journalists. While the police tactical meeting was going on, there were gunshots around the police base, an indication that the armed youths were approaching the base. So, the police told us to move inside to avoid being hit by bullets as they took positions to defend the base.
“The threat by the boys did not deter the police team as they entered the community to rescue the others. While the police were strategising on how to conduct the rescue, Bina’s heart, according to him, was already in his mouth, where he had been kept by the hoodlums after being brutalized as he thought his end had come.”
Bina narrated his story: “We had covered the last house and we were about to come back when boys suddenly swooped on us and everybody ran for safety. I ran into the house of two elderly men and women and I hid there for about an hour. It was from there I called my colleague to know if he was safe. He later called me to say that police were escorting him out. He told me the police were around. I banked on the information that the police were around where I was. But unknown to me, my location was different.
“As I was trekking to the roundabout I saw the hoodlums, they were about 30. One of them told me to stop but I ran because the place was lonely. I ran to where there were houses so that, at least, people from inside their houses could witness whatever happened to me.
“They caught up with me and pointed a gun at my head. The guy holding the guy said if I should take one more step he was going to shoot. A guy with a dagger slapped me on my forehead.
“They collected my phone and I was ordered to pull off my shirt. As I was pulling it, one of them took my singlet, tore it and used it to tie my hands behind the back. I was ordered to remove my trouser which they used to tie my legs. Then I was severely beaten and my tooth was broken.”
Bina, who gave a graphic account of how the police rescued him, declared that Silas and his team had shown that, indeed, the ‘police is your friend.’
Bina said: “Talking about the method the police used to rescue me, I must commend them. They exhibited complete professionalism in the rescue mission. They displayed courage. I was not expecting them to appear at that time as I was crying and praying, calling on God of Covenant help me.
“Within the twinkle of an eye, four policemen appeared like angels at the place I was kept. One of them jumped down and shot a cannister of teargas, which made the hoodlums to take off. The police told me to lie down as they engaged another batch of hoodlums in a gun duel.”
He disclosed that a young man that had been beaten by the hoodlums to the extent that he could no longer walk was also rescued by the police.
Bina was full of commendations for the Silas-led police team, who, after rescuing him, took him to the hospital.
“This is trauma I have never experienced in my life. It was God that saved me; if not for God they would have killed me. I told them that I was a journalist who has been covering Nembe. They accused me of being sent to kill them. In all, I just thank God that the police came to save me. The police really exhibited their friendship to the extent that after rescuing me, they took me to the General Hospital, Kolo, Ogbia LGA, with armed escort,” he added.
Bina has been visiting a dentist to get treatment while he lives with the trauma Opu-Nembe has inflicted on him.
For the only woman among the crew, her experience was also sad and frightful. According to her, it was by the grace of God that she escaped being killed.
She said: “After I fell to the ground in the ensuing confusion, I said to myself that I must remain where I was because once I get up to move it means trouble. So, I just pretended as if I was dead. I lay still. After a while I heard some feet approaching me.
“The hoodlums stood over me; they took my camera beside me and my tripod. One of them said, ‘You dey craze’. Another voice said, ‘She is dead, let us go.’ So they left me. After a while a lady walked up to me and said, ‘Won’t you stand up?’
“At that point, I summoned courage, stood up and followed her. She led me to a building and on getting there, I met the NTA cameraman, who was also hiding there. So, the girl said, ‘These are the people sent to kill us.’ But I told her that we are journalists covering stories.
“The girl threatened that they were going to deal with us. I pleaded with her and spoke my dialect (Southern Ijaw) to her. She asked what I had on me. I told her nothing, explaining that all I had had been taken from me.
“She collected my footwear. She walked up to the NTA guy, collected his phones, ATM cards, and some cash with him. She wanted to collect the camera but we begged her not to.
“Immediately after she went out, we heard the voices of the boys again. Perhaps, they saw us entering the building. They asked where we were and she sold them a dummy that we had followed the other side. So, they went that way.
“She came back with five other men and one of them asked where we were going. We told them we were journalists and that we needed to connect with our colleagues. One of them said I should pretend I was his girlfriend for us to cross the bridge to the next community, Ogbolomabiri, to save me. So, I started to gist with him and he succeeded in getting me across the bridge.”
At Ogbolomabiri, Bruce stayed in a lady’s house and it was from there she called her husband, who was able to get her boss. They then made contact with the journalists in Opu-Nembe. The police were told her location and Silas led his team to bring her to the base.
Then the only member of the crew left was the NTA cameraman, Ayebakuro, who also narrated his ordeal and said it took the grace of God to also save him.
“I was the last of the crew when we were taking visuals. In the midst of the commotion, I heard two guys shouting: ‘What are you people doing here?’ They had red cloth around their heads and were holding guns. But before they could raise their guns, I ran for my dear life. I saw one entrance and just ran into it and saw a house. I ran into it and pleaded that they should do all they could to save me. I spoke in Nembe language since I am from Okpoma.
“None of them answered me because I could see fear on their faces. As I was standing there, a girl, fair in complexion, came in. She told me to raise my hands up and surrender whatever I had on me or she would alert the hoodlums to come for me. She took the money in my pocket, which was about N5,000, she took my ATM cards, my phone and my tablet and left,” he said.
According to him, the lady later came back with two boys and demanded the PIN to his ATM card. But he told them there was no money in the account.
He said they left and later the lady came back with the boys whom she said were going to help him to cross to Ogbolomabiri. The kindness the lady was showing made him ask for the items she collected from him but her answer left him devastated.
He said: “I asked for my phone and ATM card but she said it seems I don’t value my life by asking her for the items she collected. The two boys demanded that I should give them something or they would smash my camera. I pleaded with them that I was going to give them something.
“We eventually crossed to Ogbolomabiri and they sat me down and demanded that I should give them something. I promised them that, for saving my life I was going to give them something.”
He added that the time was about 9pm and when he got to the park with the boys there was no vehicle going to Yenagoa, the state capital. So, he was left with no option than to stay with the boys who were then persistent about their ‘reward’ for saving his life. He eventually got his wife to transfer some money to them.
Silas and his team, who were worried about Ayebakuro, made efforts using Google Maps to find his location so that they could get him to join others at the police base. Finally, when they got the owner of the house he was hiding in, the man bluntly told them there was no way he was going to allow him out of his house that night without suffering the consequences from the hoodlums the following morning. The police team pleaded with him but he refused and switched off his phone to ward off pressure.
At about midnight when the police team asked the journalists if they were willing to return to Yenagoa, it was a chorus answer of yes. Silas assembled a team again and, after holding meetings, seven vans were provided to escort the team to Yenagoa at about 12.30am under heavy security, led by Silas.
Meanwhile, the Bayelsa State council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the International Press Centre, in separate statements, have condemned the attack on the journalists. In a statement by its chairman, Samuel Numonengi, and secretary, Ipigansi Ogio, the NUJ commended the police for rescuing the journalists and appealed to those who took items, especially cameras, to return them. According to the NUJ, journalists are not enemies of anyone or groups, but are friends of the society, who only carry out their lawful duties as watchdogs of society.
The IPC, in a statement signed by Melody Akinjiyan, which expressed concern over the incident, called on the police to unmask the perpetrators and bring them to book.
The AIT camera was recovered a week after the incident but it was badly damaged, an obvious deliberate action to destroy the content. Also, money was stolen from Ayebakuro’s account to buy crypto currency using the details on his card.
Though calm has returned to the community due to the efforts of the police team, it is still a long walk to peace.
