It was nightmare for some journalists covering the Presidential and National Assembly election taking place today in Bauchi as armed soldiers along the Bauchi – Tafawa Balewa road harassed them in the course of carrying out their duties.
The nasty experience first started at Dass local government when a fierce looking officer, lieutenant Y Ahmed, stopped a correspondent chapel bus conveying journalists on election duty.
One of the journalists explained to him politely that they were journalists on election duty. This innocent introduction did not go well with the officer who barked ‘park! park! as his subordinates joined the fray to querie the journalists.
“Are you more special than us? If you are on election duty so what? Park my friend. See my name. You want to see my name? Whoever you what to call, call,”
The reporters were taken aback by the sudden emotional outburst of the officer without any provocation.
What was amazing was that all the journalists were putting on the vests and p-caps givens by INEC to accredited journalists.
Since the officer kept ranting even subordinates brandished their guns, one of the journalists stated that if the Lieutenant would border to seek the identity of the people I’m the bus, he would discover that some are very senior and experienced journalists. This further infuriated became more livid, saying “because you are journalists you want us to come and bow down for you?, he retorted as he went about attending to some civilians inside J-4 bus that they had stopped.
It took the intervention of the Chairman of the Correspondent’s Chapel, Mr Segun Awofadeji, who was leading the team, to calm the situation as after calmly explaining the mision as the Lieutenant became sober .
After few minutes of doing nothing, he eventually order the bus to proceed, but the damage is done as the journalists were unable to meet Speaker Yakubu Dogara cast his vote at his polling unit at the Gwaranga poling unit at 9: 45.
