National Secretary of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Labaran Maku has on Sunday condemned the attack on two journalists in Nasarawa State.
The journalists were attacked on Friday by officials of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) attached to Pension Bureau office.
The journalists, Rabiu Omaku of Universal Reporters Online and Gambo Ahmed of Peoples Daily newspaper, were attacked for attempting to take photographs of the names of pensioners delisted.
Maku condemned the attack when he visited one of the journalists currently receiving treatment at the amenity unit of the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital Lafia.
“The frequent attack on journalists and media houses is unacceptable.
“The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) must rise up to their responsibility to ensuring their members are protected to do their work in the state.
“NUJ must protect its members and seek for justice for the ones attacked because the attack is one too many,” the former information minister said.
He said journalists should not be intimidated despite the primitive violence on them by those who were supposed to protect them.
“If you remove the free press and the parliament, what you have is a dictatorship.
“The press must not be intimidated because if you don’t report the activities of the government to the public, our democracy would collapse.
“You are empowered by the constitution to look for information and report same even if the government does not want to release such information,” Maku added.
The APGA governorship candidate in Nasarawa State
He promised to protect journalists in the state if elected governor.
