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Two Journalists Attacked by Traders in
Aba
On 21 March 2005, Ijendu Iheaka, a reporter for "The Punch"
newspaper, and Mathia Nwogu, a reporter for "The Sun" newspaper, were
mobbed and their tape recorders seized by traders at the Ariaria
International Market in Aba, the capital of Abia State, southeastern
Nigeria, for entering the traders' "territory" without giving them prior
notice and obtaining their permission.
The journalists were attacked when they went to interview
Florence Moghalu, a recently widowed trader in the market complex, who
alleged that she was being harassed by some men in the market for
rebuffing their sexual advances following the death of her husband in
2004. The journalists were alerted to Moghalu's plight by Alphonsus
Udeigbo, the coordinator of a non-governmental organization, Widows'
Organization International.
Iheaka and Nwogu were saved from more serious harm by a
spectator who insisted that they should be taken before the chairman of
the Ariaria Market Traders' Association, Eric Obioha. Obioha dispersed the
angry crowd of traders after seizing the tape recorders the journalists
were using to interview Moghalu.
On 22 March, Obioha addressed a press conference in which
he apologised to Iheaka and Nwogu for the assault, saying it was due to
"ignorance" on the part of the traders.
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