NBC Fines Arise TV and TVC N2m

The Director of the Radio and TV station, Ifeanyi Okali, who disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, said the management was “worried by the invasion of our broadcast station” by the police operatives.

Mr Okali said the incident happened at about 2:40 p.m. and that the police claimed that Uche Udensi, an elder brother of the guest, had written a petition against him over a family matter.

“Despite repeated pleas by our staff to the officers to allow the programme to come to an end before the guest could be arrested, they insisted (on) whisking him away while the live programme was on.

“We find this very provocative and indeed an act of overzealousness by the officers who obviously acted in clear contravention of the rule of engagement,” he said.

Mr Okali, in the statement, said he contacted the Commissioner of Police in Abia State, Kenechukwu Onwuemelie, who invited some staff members of the station to the police headquarters.

The director said some police operatives at the police headquarters “barricaded the door and harassed, intimidated and threatened to detain them”. They were prevented from seeing the police commissioner, he said, adding that what happened “clearly negates the enhanced police-civil relations” often campaigned for by the police commissioner.

‘We lost some of our broadcast equipment’

Mr Okali said that during the police invasion, some of the station’s broadcast equipment was damaged, including a laptop, camera, and microphones.

“It has left us with huge financial losses. We are calling for the replacement of the affected tools,” he said.

The director said the station considers the incident as “an attack on press freedom and most especially open violation of the human right to expression,” given that it happened during a live programme where important issues, such as youth development, were being discussed.

Some police officers have arrested a popular broadcast journalist in Imo State, south-east Nigeria.

The journalist, Chinonso Uba, otherwise known as Nonso Nkwa, was whisked away on Thursday by the officers after he finished anchoring his morning programme on Ozisa FM, a radio station in Owerri, the state capital.

Ozisa FM, where the journalist works, is owned by the Catholic Diocese of Owerri.

The station is within the premises of Assumpta Cathedral of the diocese.

Mr Uba was said to be driving out of the cathedral in his Highlander SUV when the officers, who reportedly laid an ambush, double-crossed him at a junction in the state and arrested him.

Sources told PREMIUM TIMES that the officers – who operated in a Toyota Hilux truck, Lexus SUV, and ES 330 saloon car – forced the journalist into one of their vehicles and zoomed off, abandoning the journalist’s SUV.

The journalist was said to have initially resisted arrest, expressing fears that he might be killed by the officers.

The officers reportedly prevented passers-by from recording the incident, it was learnt.

The Manager of Ozisa FM, Raymond Nzereogu, confirmed the arrest of the journalist to reporters in Owerri.

Mr Nzereogu, a Catholic priest, said he visited police headquarters in the state and saw the journalist in the custody of the police.

When contacted on Friday morning, the police spokesperson in Imo State, Henry Okoye, confirmed the arrest of the journalist to PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Okoye, an assistant superintendent of police, said he was arrested by police operatives from the Criminal Investigation Department of the Force Headquarters in Abuja.

The police spokesperson said he was unaware of the offence committed by the journalist that informed his arrest by the officers.

He promised to contact the Force Headquarters and revert later with details of the journalist’s offence.