May 09, (THEWILL) – Thugs loyal to the Majority Leader of the Taraba State House of Assembly and Member representing Donga Constituency, Douglas Yahaya Ndatse, on Monday, assaulted some journalists at the Taraba Government House.
The journalists were at the Government House to cover the visit of one of the Presidential aspirants on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Peter Obi.
Security personnel attached to the government house had shut the gate to prevent the crowd from gaining access into the government House, when the Majority Leader arrived at the gate.
The crowd in an attempt to take advantage of his coming to gain access caused a commotion at the gate.
In the heat of the moment, the journalists; Sani Suleiman of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and Justin Tyopuusu of PUNCH Newspaper, in an attempt to take pictures of the event, were descended on by the thugs who accompanied the lawmaker.
THEWILL gathered that the thugs who were armed with knives, sticks and cutlasses, forcefully confiscated the journalists phones and ordered them to delete all the pictures in their phones.
Meanwhile, the Majority Leader quietly watched the assault on the journalists, saying “the journalists are not supposed to record the scene.”
The Chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Mr Gabriel Yough, who arrived at the scene on hearing the incident, condemned the assault on the journalists, stressing that the matter will not be allowed to slide.
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