Natl Conference Members Condemn Arrest Of Journalist By SSS At Confab

While proceedings were  going on yesterday at the on- going National Conference, men of the Department of State Service, DSS waited, picked a deputy editor with The Sun Newspaper, Mr Iheanacho Nwosu, detained and interrogated.

Mr. Nwosu who is one of the accredited journalists covering proceedings at the conference, was picked by DSS operatives at about 2pm yesterday and taken to their office within the National Judicial Institute (NJI), venue of the conference.

He was detained for over 30 minutes and eventually released after some journalists besieged the area where he was being detained, and with the intervention of the Assistant Secretary, Media and Communications, Akpandem James.

Nwosu was said to have been picked by the DSS following a story published by Daily Sun yesterday over exchange of blows between an operative of the DSS and a policeman at the venue of the ongoing National Conference.

At the resumed session after break, delegates however condemned the action of the DSS operatives, just as one of the delegates,  Niyi Akintola, raised a point of order and warned that in a democratic dispensation, it was wrong for security operatives to infringe on the rights of a journalist who was carrying out his responsibilities. According to him, the era of abuse of human rights must not be revisited. His submission was supported by other delegates who condemned the action of DSS operatives.

Reacting, Deputy Chairman of the conference, Professor Bolaji Adeyemi warned security agencies to respect the rights of people who are carrying out their duties. Meanwhile, journalists covering the conference have threatened to boycott the coverage of the conference. They expressed fears that unless the operatives who unlawfully detained their colleague were brought to book.