A Channels Television (TV) reporter has accused the Rivers State Police Command of manhandling him during a protest in the state.
The protest occurred on Monday in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Charles Opurum, the reporter who was allegedly brutalized, narrated his ordeal with the “overzealous” police officers during the “Take It Back” movement protest.
As the protesters converged from Isaac Boro Park and arrived at the CFC flyover, the deployed police team interrupted the peaceful protesters who were advocating for the reinstatement of elected democratic government officers.
“I was covering the takeitback protest here in Port Harcourt. While they were marching from the Isaac Boro Park towards the federal secretariat, where the police said they had approval to protest,” the Channels TV reporter recounted. “I really don’t know the arrangement between the protesters and the police because it’s not my job, my job is to report on what is happening.
“Along the line, the police started shooting, started firing teargas, somewhere under the CFC flyover, I tried to film what was happening because that’s the job, and an overzealous police man attacked me.”
According to Opurum during an interview session with journalists, he said he was beaten and dragged into the police vehicle for carrying out his assignment as a reporter, despite identifying himself as a journalist.
“He dragged me by the shirt, dragged me by the trouser, said who are you? So, I identified myself, I even showed him my ID card, he now said even if you are a Journalist and we tell you not to protest are you not supposed to listen to us? I said I am not protesting, I am here to report on what is actually happening,” he said.
While sharing his ordeal with the security officers, he said an overzealous officer reached out for his phone but was resisted before he was pushed into the police vehicle.
Speaking further, the assaulted reporter frowned at the outcome of a peaceful demonstration following the attack by police personnel.
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He continued by saying an officer kept, “slapping me and dragging me, he tried to force me into a bus but I said no, I can’t enter this bus because this is not a police van, rather put me in a police van let me know that I am in the custody of the police. So he dragged me to the second van and pushed me inside.
“He tried to take my phone but I resisted and held my phone back.”
He shared how he regained his freedom. He said, “When I got into the van and he closed the van, it turned out that the people in the van were members of the CP monitoring unit and they know me, they were even surprised to see me.
“They asked me Charles what happened, what did you do? I said I didn’t do anything I was just filming, observing what was happening. After waiting for like five minutes they said you can go, please just be careful and they apologized to me for their colleague arresting me, they actually apologized to me. That’s how I was released. That’s basically the summary of what transpired between myself and the police in the line of duty.”
