The PUNCH Petitions IG over Alleged Brutal Attack of Staff by SFU Operatives

The Punch newspaper has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, over the attack on one of its Lagos staff, Toni Ufor, by policemen attached to the Special Fraud Unit (SFU).

The journalist was said to have been attacked and harassed, while his phone and identity card were seized by the policemen.

In a statement made available to press by Editor, The Punch, Mr. Ademola Oni, the media firm described the attack as barbaric, unwarranted and provocative.

“I wish to draw your attention to the unwarranted, provocative, uncivilised, crude and barbaric attack on a correspondent of The Punch newspaper by some policemen attached to the Special Fraud Unit, Ikoyi, Lagos, on Wednesday, December 29, 2021.

“Ufoh had been duly assigned to cover the case of some tenants allegedly defrauded by a developer, Adewale Tunde, at the Milverton Office of the SFU in Ikoyi.

“The reporter’s offence was that he had the audacity to conduct interviews with the victims allegedly defrauded by the developer in front of the premises of the unit.

“The power-drunk policemen descended on the helpless reporter, accusing him of recording the SFU office. After he was made to identify himself as a journalist, the overzealous policemen arrested the reporter, deleted all the interviews he had conducted on his telephone set and went ahead to seize the set and confiscated his ID card.

“These cops equally threatened to lock up the journalist when he demanded the return of his set and card, which are his lawful property.

“The intervention of one of the crime reporters on the Metro Desk of the newspaper failed to assuage the flaming impunity of these policemen, who ensured they frustrated the coverage of the assignment for reasons best known to them,” the statement reads in part.

He further lamented that, “Attacks on Punch reporters by officers of the Nigerian Police Force have become a recurring decimal, from Lagos to Imo, from Enugu to Kaduna in the recent past.

“I have the authority of the management of PUNCH Nigeria Limited to request that you use your good offices to direct that the errant policemen return the telephone set and the ID card of Ufor to him at the corporate head office of PUNCH Nigeria Limited, PUNCH Place, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Magboro before 6pm today, December 30, 2021 to ensure fairness.

“We also demand that these overzealous policemen be punished for taking the laws into their hands by attacking an innocent Nigerian, obstructing a journalist from carrying out his lawful duty, and dragging the image of the force in the mud through their crudeness and brazen display of their self-imposed power.

“Kindly accept the highest regard of the PUNCH management as we both continue to work towards a better nation.”