Thugs beat up Zamfara NUJ chair, threaten journalists

Thugs on Thursday beat up Zamfara state Chairman of the Nigeria Union Journalists (NUJ) as they threatened to deal with journalists in the state.

The thugs went haywire after the chairman of the Union, Comrade Ibrahim Musa Maizare, asked some workers who were at the NUJ Shops Complex at the Union’s Secretariat to renovate a shop for use as as campaign office to stop the work.

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The hoodlums said they would not stop the work or leave the place because it was given to them by a politician and in as along as that politician is breathing they would never vacate the place.

The NUJ shop was initially hired as a restaurant but after the tenant wound up the restaurant business and left, it was converted to campaign office by suspected thugs.

The said shop was burnt by the rival thugs in 2021 and the NUJ asked the suspects to vacate the office for fear of putting the whole NUJ Complex and other shops attached to it at risk.

Even after a team of police arrived at the NUJ Secretariat, the thugs continued to hurl insults at the officials and other members of the Union.

Addressing, newsmen shortly after the incident, the Secretary of the Union, Ibrahim Ahmad Gada, asked the security agencies to protect the lives and property of journalists, adding that the lives of working journalists in the state are seriously in danger.

“If an armed thug can threaten to kill a working journalists what do you expect? The safety of all working journalists must be guaranteed. We are calling all the stakeholders to intervene. How can a thug dictate the way we can use our property in the state,” Gada said.