Hir Joseph, the Assistant Editor for The Daily Trust in Nasarawa State, was attacked by the incoming Governor Al-Makura’s thugs last Friday in total view of high level political delegates and attendees at the Gubernatorial Inauguration held in Lafia Square of the State capital.

Mr. Joseph in an interview said.

“At about 11:28 AM, while the Governor was speaking, I stood with a notebook in my hand and a camera on the other hand when young men came up to me, approached me, and asked me to follow them” he began.

As Mr. Joseph spoke with the Governor’s men, a third approached and told them to grab hold of him.

He continued by saying, “I was standing just between the podium where the governor was speaking and the VIP section where there were diplomats, past and present governors and senators and house of representative members.”

“This happened before armed guards of the Governor,” he pointed out.

Joseph repeatedly shouted for help, but nobody could come to his rescue. “While they were dragging me one of them was choking me. Two of his arms were tight against my throat and I was choked.”

The number of attackers kept increasing and many wore white shirts for Tanko Al- Makura, the governor.

Amidst this egregious attack The Chief Press Secretary, Wakobe Lamlai, took Joseph’s camera and was deleting pictures and demanded that other members of the press delete photos from their cameras as well.

Moreover, “While the thugs were dragging me away, he was going round and stopping my colleagues from helping me out.” They were overwhelmed by his illegitimate mandate to eradicate evidence.

This happened in broad daylight before many prominent witnesses; it happened before the Chief Justice of the State, before the Police Commissioner, and before past and present legislators.

Joseph found out through people close to the Governor, “that the Governor had been very uncomfortable with my reports. He doesn’t find my style of reporting good. He thinks his opponents support my write ups because they will expose him as a selfish political leaders who doesn’t want the growth of the members of APC.”

A public attack was passively authorized because “stakeholders are afraid they will not get any good deal with APC arrangement. They fear nobody is speaking for them.”

http://www.gossipha.com/governor-al-makuras-thugs-beat-up-journalist-in-public-press-secretary-lamlai-demands-press-to-delete-photo-evidence/