CLAMP DOWN ON JOURNALISTS IN NIGERIA: UNION DERIDE GOVERNMENT'S ACTION

 Posted by Lateef Lawal

The Nigerian Union of Journalists(NUJ) has derided the Federal Government for the recent clampdown on the media and specifically the continued closure of the press center at the Presodential Lounge of Lagos Airport.
In a statement issued yesterday by the national secretariate of the union and signed by its  National Secretray, Shuaibu Usman Leman ,it noted that:
"The continued closure of the Media Centre at the Murtala MohammedInternational Airport in Lagos by the Nigerian authorities is a further confirmation of the continued fears being expressed by the union that theNigerian State is becoming increasingly hostile to the media.
It will be recalled that last week the Media Centre located at the VIP Wingof the airport, a facility that had been made available to AirportCorrespondents since the airport was built over 30 years ago was sealedand Journalists barred from gaining access to the building. 
Very painfulwas the fact that media equipment belonging to about 60 journalists that cover the airport were locked inside the Centre while all entreaties by the NUJ and other well meaning Nigerians for the authorities to allow theseequipment to be retrieved by their owners were blatantly ignored.
The NUJ condemns this deliberate attempt to muzzle the press and wishesto once more draw attention to the rising acts of impunity by the Nigeriansecurity operatives against the media allegedly in furtherance of nationalsecurity.
The NUJ maybe constrained to withdraw all journalists from covering anyGovernment activity within the vicinity of the Lagos airport if such an
unfriendly action against the media is not stopped forthwith andunconditional apology tendered by the respective authority".