RAYMOND OZOJI reports
It took the quick intervention of security agents to prevent what would have culminated into bloodshed at Emaus House Awka on Saturday shortly after a constituency meeting with women as one of the aides to the lawmaker representing Awka-North and South federal constituency at the national assembly verbally molested and threatened to beat journalists up for asking his principal Prof. Lilian Orogbu the rationale behind setting up a stadium in Achalla instead of a rice mill since they are predominantly farmers.
Hell was let loose as the aide boasted that he would beat the Vice Chairman of NUJ Anambra Council to stupor and nothing will happen because the latter attempted to prevent him from engaging in a fight with a senior journalist who asked the question on the said stadium project.
The lawmaker's aide who was taken on record while threatening to beat journalists up and labelling them APGA moles in a Labour Party gathering, claimed that the question was uncalled for even when his principal had responded to it saying that the stadium project in Achalla Awka-North Local Government Area was not her making but was decided upon according to needs assessment from the area.
The aide therefore addressed journalists as mad people, saying that he has remarked their faces and anytime he sees them in Prof. Orogbu's programmes, he will deal with them mercilessly.
One of the journalists humiliated by Prof. Orogbu's errand boys, Dr. Okechukwu Onuegbu, who spoke to HEADLINE NEWS amidst the frenzied atmosphere, said it was a shame for politicians to allow their thugs and errand boys to speak to journalists in an uncivilized manner.
Onuegbu who is a reporter for Blue Print Newspaper and owner of Factcheck Nigeria Limited, said enough is enough for journalists to be molested, harassed and humiliated by hoodlums hired by politicians to act as aides.
He said politicians' aides can not just threaten journalists and go scot-free especially for someone who doesn't know a single medium out of all the media houses in Nigeria, adding that Prof. Orogbu's aide must be made to face the law for boasting that he will beat journalists up and nothing will happen.
He said the matter will be reported to the police for proper action to be taken as journalists, according to him, face all manner of threats and molestations while carrying out their official duties.
Meanwhile Prof. Lilian Orogbu who granted an interview to journalists shortly after her constituency meeting with women, declared that Anambra State is no longer safe for investments and businesses due to incessant lose of lives and properties orchestrated by insecurity.
Orogbu noted that although she has seen some roads here and there but still not impressed because she believes that the citizens need to be alive to ply the roads.
She maintained that the primary responsibility of a responsive government is to protect the lives and properties of the citizens but according to her, the reverse is the case in Anambra State as it is quite disappointing that nothing is being done to ameliorate the situation.
She said the kind of killings going on in Anambra are really disturbing and citizens need the government to invest money in security as she believes that the Dubai-Taiwan vision can not be realized if there is no security in the state.
She however tasked Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo to deploy security votes to effective use, empower communities and allow local governments take charge of security issues in their respective domains inorder to enthrone conducive environment for businesses and investments to thrive in the state.
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