*A Tale By The Moonlight Told In Broad Daylight; A Classic Case Of Alarmism – Government Aids
What A Symphony Of Destruction – An Artist
*A Journalist Is A Dead Man – The Professional
By Adamu Muhammad Dodo
At an international session on recession and the media, the role of the media as mediator in addressing issues that would involve the policy makers and those for whom the policy would be impacted, could not be overemphasised.
“A journalist is a dead man,” was what was made a background of another session, I was made to chair. Investigative journalists articulated their experiences interestingly exhaustively; the confiscation of international passport to render a reporter helplessly criminal, the incarceration, the threat to life and how some colleagues lost their lives on assignments when they would not submit to any prompting, were some of the narratives defining the risk associated with the professional task.
“Investigative journalism is risky, especially if the intention for the mission, is professionally unhealthy. Therefore, a good journalist shouldn’t be afraid of death or threat to life, for being a dead man already.”
The session argued that those who would loose their lives in the cause of fact finding, would remain the living in their deaths because they would keep on being subjects of reference rather than ridicule to eternity with their name decorated in gold, prospering in posterity.
The act of their being killed, could in metaphor, result in the defeat of a tyrant leader, conspirators and/or the accomplices to conspiracy.
Could the act amount to serving as sacrificial lamb?
It’s really untypical of Adamawa state. It wasn’t, it isn’t and it won’t be the character of the people and government of Adamawa state to raise or to sponsor a killer squads to play the angels of death against the living dead in journalists and/or any other person(s) making a genuine living even if to the discomfort of the aristocracy or the leadership. It is regarded as tolerance of the other, provided that the act of intolerance would not be beyond bounds breeding dissension, calculated to cause mutual mistrust for anarchy; suggestive of the limit to freedom.
Any attempt for the cross fertilisation of the good with the bad and the ugly, in translating violence for chaotic intention, will be faced with stiff resistance, proving a point in the costly price attempting a lifeless life of a living dead.
Should one, without suffering from dementia, think of fighting a ghost at a time he ought to be struggling for votes?
Three newsmen, corresponding for national media organisations in Adamawa State, namely; Adenusi Owolabi of TVC, Hindi Livinus of the Punch newspaper and Phineas Padio of Sahara Reporters, have petitioned the Inspector General of police, requesting for protection of their lives, alleging that a state sponsored deadly killer squad with the mandate to eliminate them or cause grievous injury have been constituted.
The petition, dated September 7, 2018 and copied to the office of Adamawa State governor, director DSS, AIG zone 3, brigade Commander 23 armored brigade Yola, commandant NSCDC and NUJ chairman, Adamawa state council, added that from intelligence report at their disposal, a deadly squad has been formed to either eliminate them or cause them grievous bodily harm.
“The group according to intelligence report at our disposal, consist of security operatives attached to the Adamawa state governor and a horde of political thugs.
“The group according to our informants is commanded by a senior ranking police officer of the Adamawa State Governor.
“As alleged, the killer group which is being coordinated from the Adamawa State government house, has been assigned the task to either eliminate us or deform us by breaking our two hands and two legs,” they said.
They noted that their investigative exploits which has been exposing the infractions of the state government was their major undoing hence the harsh measure.
“In fact, the killer group has figured us out as dangerous journalists, whose investigative styled reportage will expose the reality on ground in the state, thereby swaying public perception about the current government.
“This to them if allowed unchecked, will have negative consequence on governor Jibrilla Bindow’s reelection bid in 2019,” they noted.
The Periscope Global Investigate tried digging deep into the allegation, Comrade Ahmed Sajoh the commissioner for information, was with his principal and other media aids, on assignment in Abuja.
While reacting in a telephone interview with the Periscope Global Investigate, Sajoh simply dismissed the allegation as a tale by the moonlight told in broad daylight; a classic case of alarmism.
Adamawa state government sponsoring a killer squad against the very people whose interests, properties and lives it has promised to protect?
“This is libellous, a campaign of calumny by alarmists seeking for significance.”
The media aids equally argued that Bindow led government was one that was not intolerant to criticisms however “unconstructive” since its inception over three years ago.
“Journalists are never coerced or threatened for writing nasty unverified stories. Adamawa state government was not to threaten their lives why now?
“The three rumour journalists who feed on figments of imagination, are simply acting a script in compliance to conspiracy against the government of Adamawa state,” the media aids said.
However, the petition by the journalists was received with mixed public reactions. The excesses capable of causing violence alleged to be coordinated by a state house of assembly member representing Yola north local government area, were instances cited the possibility of the threat.
It was alleged that the attack launched against Senator Abdulaziz Nyako with his supporters some months previously by the miserably paid, drunk and drugs devastated thugs, was coordinated by the lawmaker as much as breaking the vehicles of the APC; the David Babachir/Nuhu Ribadu camp while they were in a meeting deliberating the possibility of the direct primaries decided by the national executive council of the party.
Some political analysts argued that governor Bindow could have his weakness, however, he would hardly degenerate into such savagery, especially, presently when he would be canvassing for support to be reelected.
Not in our character, No! Not in Adamawa. This is intolerable the inhuman act typical of the excesses graphically captured in lyrics; “Symphony of Destruction”:
You take a mortal man
And put him in control
Watch him become a god
Watch people’s heads a’roll
A’roll, a’ roll…”
Adamawa state government ought to be public in responding to the allegation: “state sponsored killer squad,” is to say the least, so weighty, for any silence. Peace!