Inspite of the long
hours of waiting by journalists in Minna, Niger, on Monday, to get the
outcome of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), some members
of the union came out of the Senate building, the venue of the meeting,
to harass journalists who had been waiting endlessly since morning,
saying, “who invited these stupid people.”
One of the notable members of the union that instructed security to ask the journalists to leave was the chairman, ASUU, FUT-Minna, Dr Abdulfatai Jimoh, who assaulted the Daily Trust correspondent, Aliyu Hamagan.
Abdulfatai had earlier thought Hamagan was a member of the union and invited him to come closer. He then asked, “who brought this stupid people inside? What are they doing here?”
Hamagan quickly responded by saying, “I am one of the people you are calling stupid. I will not have you insult us like that.”
Abdulfatai on finding out that he was speaking with a journalist, pushed Hamagan and asked him to leave the premises, saying, “you people are intruding, we did not invite you, get out of this place now.”
The meeting, which started at about 11:30 a.m. was still ongoing as of press time.
The scenario took another twist when members of ASUU NEC local organising committee came down to inform journalists that some of them (ASUU) were not comfortable with the presence of the pressmen.
However, there was disagreement among the members over the presence of journalists, with some suggesting that the media should stay because they were doing their job, others persisted that “we did not invite them, when we need them, we will invite them.”
Vice Chancellor, Federal university of Technology Minna, Professor Musbau Akanji, pleaded with journalists, saying, “although, I am not a part of the meeting, I am apologising on their behave because they are in my territory.”
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