Policemen Brutalise TV Reporter Covering Students’ Protest

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Mr. Damina Yusuf

On July 29, 2021, operatives of the Rapid Response Team attached to the Police Command in Bauchi State attacked Mr. Damina Yusuf, a reporter with the privately owned Africa Independent Television (AIT) while he was covering a protest by students of the College of Agriculture in Yelwa in Bauchi State. The policemen brutalized him and seized his camera, laptop, mobile phone and wallet.

Damina was reportedly on his official assignment when he was accosted and assaulted by police officers of the Rapid Response Team without any provocation.

As a result of the attack, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bauchi State Council, directed all its members to boycott all activities of the Nigeria Police Force in the state.

In a statement issued on July 30 by the Union and signed by the Chairman and Secretary, Umar Sa’idu and Isah Gadau, respectively, it condemned the incident and noted with dismay, “the uncivilised manner of the Nigeria Police in adopting brutality as part of its tradition, especially against journalists.”

The Union insisted that the perpetrators of the dastardly act on the journalist must be punished before coverage of Police activities in the state will be restored adding, “this is the fifth time in the last one year that Journalists were brutalised by policemen while carrying out their legitimate duties in the state.”