On March 9, 2019, Kunle Sanni, a journalist with the online newspaper, Premium Times, was abducted in Shendam local government area of Plateau State by political thugs for taking pictures of underage voters during the governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
Political agents suspected to be of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) accosted Kunle when they spotted him photographing a number of young children who were on queue to vote.
APC agents at the centre where Kunle monitored instructed thugs loyal to the governing party to surround the polling unit and bar the reporter from exiting when they discovered he had taken photographs of the children and their voter cards.
When he discovered the plans of the APC agents, Kunle called his medium which tried to ensure he left the polling unit safely, unfortunately, he walked into an ambush. He was abducted, forced into a taxi and driven to an unknown destination where he was forced to delete the photographs he had taken.
Recounting his ordeal, he said: “The men collected my phone which was dead at the time, parked in a bush and plugged the phone to see who I was sending the pictures. When the men confirmed I had deleted them, they offered me money [N20,000] in return.”
Kunle said their countenances changed when he declined the offer and he was forced to accept it so that they don’t harm him as the place where they took him was bushy and he feared he could get killed if he refused the money.
