The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has barred its members in Kogi State from covering the activities of the state chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association ( NMA), until further notice.
The NUJ in a statement in Lokoja on Tuesday said it took the decision so as to protect the integrity of the profession of journalism and save journalists in the state from unwarranted attacks.
The statement was signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the state council of the NUJ, Alhaji Adeiza Momoh Jimoh and Mr Ademu Seidu, respectively.
They expressed disappointed that an association of the status of NMA could deny a statement issued and signed on its behalf by its state Chairman, Dr Kabiru Zubair.
Zubair had on May 3, while commenting on the state’s COVID-free status, expressed reservations about the inability of the state government to carry out tests on suspected patients.
“Because of this high level of suspicion, doctors prefers to rule out COVID-19 in patients they considered as high risk before proceeding to manage them for their clinical conditions.
“The inability of the state to test or follow laid down protocols in order to exclude COVID-19 may lead to needless death of patients presenting with other clinical conditions due to neglect by health care workers (HCWs).
“It should be noted, that if doctors should attend to one unknown case of COVID-19 in the hospital settings, it may spread to many HCWs and their families,” Zubair had said in the statement.
However, Zubair, made a U-turn few days after, telling the state government that he never made the statement credited to him
Consequently, his denial encouraged some elements to take to the social media to disparage and make unprintable comments about the media profession and journalists.
The development forced the leadership of the state NUJ to carry out a thorough investigation into the incident to ascertain the truth.
From the investigation, the NUJ was able to establish that the state NMA through its Chairman, Zubair, actually made the statements.
“The council calls on the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Kogi state chapter, to toe the path of honour by taking responsibility for its actions,” the NUJ said.
According to the NUJ, it would have been better and more honourable for the NMA to simply apologise to the government, when it found out that the statement was not correct.
It called on the association to refrain from putting journalists who are simply doing their jobs at the receiving end.
It directed all journalists in the state to immediately comply with its directive on boycott of the activities of the NMA until further notice.
“This is to avoid being drawn into unnecessary confrontations with the government or any other body because of the NMA’s inconsistency,” the statement explained.
The NUJ commended the state government for being proactive in its handling of the Coronavirus pandemic in the state, which has made Kogi one of the states yet to record any single case.
The statement also called on the government to extend support to journalists in the state who have been in the forefront of the fight against the dreaded disease. (NAN)
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