Some youths yesterday burnt a coaster bus that conveyed reporters to K-Dare in Gokana Local Goverment Area of Rivers State where the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project handed over polluted and contaminated sites to contactors.
It was gathered that the youths had threatened to stop the event for allegedly being sidelined.
The affected journalists, numbering 10, said they lost their laptops, cameras, midgets and mobile telephone handset to the incident.
The incident was said to have happened minutes after HYPREP Coordinator Mavin Dekil began addressing community leaders on the mission of the agency.
One of the affected journalists narrated: “We left Port Harcourt to K-Dare in company of the HYPREP coordinator to hand over polluted sites to contractors. Less than thirty minutes of our arrival and mid way into the event marking the handing over of the sites, a police officer came to the venue and informed us that the youths have set ablazed one of the buses that came from Port Harcourt”
“We all rushed out only to find out that the bus in question was the one that brought us from Port Harcourt. Most of my colleagues have their personal belongings such as laptop, handsets cameras and midgets inside the bus”
“The most annoying thing is that the police and soldiers that accompanied the coordinator watched helplessly why this happened.”
When contacted, HYPREP Media Coordinator Mr Kabari said those affected had been asked to make inventory of their loses.
