ACB Agbazuere, the Chief of Staff to Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state on Thursday reportedly ordered security men attached to Government House, Umuahia to torture a cameraman and a reporter working with ABN TV.
The journalists were covering protesting members of the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), who were demanding their 25 months unpaid salaries from the state government.
The protesting COEASU members were said to have waited in vain at the Abia state government house for several hours with no one to address them.
Trouble started upon the arrival of Agbazuere, who came to address the protesters “but not without ordering all journalists present to put off their cameras”, according to an eyewitness.
After his address, the Chief of Staff allegedly ordered fierce-looking security men attached to government house to take the ABN TV staff and other journalists to a certain place to “take care of them.”
“Surprising, however, we were taken to a dark room where we were thoroughly tortured and intimidated and all items in our cameras deleted”, one of the journalists told newsmen.
It was gathered that the security men went further to ask the journalists if they all wanted to “die young”, threatening to deal with them mercilessly alongside their boss.
All efforts to reach the accused, Agbazuere, to hear his own side of the story proved abortive as all calls placed to his known phone line went unanswered.
Similarly, ABN TV Director, Ifeanyi Okali could not be immediately reached for comment. But a close source said Okali is, however, likely to involve the police to investigate alleged threats to his life and that of his staff.
Contacted, however, the State Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi Kalu said the information available to him indicates that the allegation is not true.
