Shocking news as Rivers police assault reporter on election duty. At Rumuiprikon, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state, a group of policemen on Saturday afternoon detained The PUNCH reporter Gbenga Oloniniran close to the governor’s home.
The operative landed on Oloniniran and was on election duty. He was shooting pictures of a situation where police officers were arresting some youngsters at a voting place.
The Rapid Operation Squad agents assaulted him. They took his phone and packed him into their van without giving him a chance to speak.
The officers deleted several of the images he had previously taken. Including those taken while he was being arrested. They assaulted him while he was in the van.
The officers declared: “Why are you capturing us? Who are you? What do you want to do? Come here, go inside the vehicle.”
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“I was arrested and brutalized by the police officers because I tried to take pictures of the moment they were assaulting a male voter at a polling unit close to Governor Wike’s polling unit at Wimpey Junction, Rumuepirikom, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.”
Nevertheless, the incident was reported to the Rivers State Police Command spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko. Afterward, he was freed at the Rivers State University, Junction in Port Harcourt.
After being freed, Oloniniran told our correspondent that he had been brutalized by police at a voting place close to where Nyesom Wike, the state’s current governor, had earlier cast his ballot.
Oloniniran claimed that he was detained for filming a group of police officers intimidating a male voter at the voting place.
Well, the police had earlier detained me, but I’ve since been released, Oloniniran said.
