NIGERIAN AUTHORITIES BARS AVIATION JOURNALISTS FROM LAGOS AIRPORT PRESS CENTER

Lagos NUJ Condemns Lock-out of Aviation Reporters

The lock-out of Aviation journalists by the Nigerian authorities entered its fourth-day today with no official reason for the action.

Though the protocol officials had early last year claimed they introduced accreditation for journalists coming into the press center of the Presidential Lounge of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, few journalists that were even accredited were barred from the center along with others that were on the waiting list.

The harrasements and the eventual lock-out of journalists from the Press Center of the presidential Lounge was carried out by the combined collaboration of officials of the State Security Service(SSS), the Nigerian Airforce and the Head of Protocol of the Foreign Affairs Ministry who told officials of the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents that they were acting on orders from the Presidency in Abuja.

In a swift reaction to the unwarranted lock-out of journalists from the press center, the Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists , NUJ , frowned at the inability of aviation reporters covering the Murtala Muhammed airport in Lagos to perform their professional duties since Saturday , February 4 , 2012

In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its Chairman , Deji Gbolahan Elumoye , Lagos NUJ wondered why the authorities at the presidential lounge where the press centre is located have denied the aviation journalists access to their office in the last 48 hours

The union described as unwarranted the act of the security operatives who turned back accredited reporters at the presidential lounge allegedly on orders from above

According to Lagos NUJ , the press centre where journalists' working tools like laptops , recorders and cameras had been locked up should be re-opened forthwith because there is no justification for ejecting reporters from the office they've been using all along

"This latest move by government to stifle the press will be resisted moreso as the press centre has been in use by our members for over 30 years since the times of the military junta

"If the military regimes of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and late Sani Abacha could tolerate our members' use of the press centre when the issue of security was at stake why is it now under a democratic dispensation that journalists are being denied the use of the public facilities at the airport?" ,the council wondered