On June 10, 2021, some operatives of the Department of the State Services (DSS) and some policemen, assaulted The Punch newspaper Abuja correspondent, Mr Friday Oloko, when he went to cover discussants at the African Council of Women Conference in Abuja. His clothes were torn by the security men who assaulted him.
Narrating his ordeal, Friday said he drove to M & M Events Centre, venue of the Conference, close to NICON Luxury in Central Business District in Abuja and introduced himself but was stopped by a mobile policeman at the gate and asked to get an entry tag. He said he told the mobile policeman that he could only get the tag from the people who invited him and then he called another journalist, Patience Ihejirika, who brought him an entry tag.
The Correspondent disclosed that the police officer complained aloud saying journalists are the problem of Nigeria whereupon he (Friday) asked him why security agencies hate journalists. In response, the officer started abusing him and said had he not been in uniform, he would have taught the journalist a big lesson.
Friday said following their dialogue, the police officer stopped him from entering the venue of the Conference. This time, some DSS operatives pounced on him and tore his shirt while another attempted several times to ‘clear him from the ground’ which he was able to dodge by jumping. The DSS operatives were joined by police officers. They ordered him to sit on the ground, handcuffed him and seized the phone belonging to Patience Ihejirika. They deleted the videos and photos of the incident, while one of the police officers threatened to beat her up.
