Men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps on Tuesday harassed journalists and beat up a correspondent of The Nation newspaper, Mr Toba Adedeji, while he was covering a protest by students at the NSCDC headquarters in Osogbo, the state capital.
One of the overzealous NSCDC personnel accosted Adedeji at the scene and started querying him, despite the fact that the reporter identified himself as the correspondent of The Nation newspaper.
But this did not stop the NSCDC personnel from beating the journalist as he claimed that Adedeji was rude to a senior officer. The NSCDC personnel was joined by his colleagues as they harassed the journalist.
While other journalists were trying to rescue Adedeji from the NSCDC men, one of the civil defence personnel threatened to shoot the journalist and waste them.
Adedeji narrates his ordeal “I was standing under the shade at the entrance of the NSCDC command working on my phone while protest by the students was ongoing. One of the officers accused me of spying for the police.
“I told him that I am not a police spy but a journalist, one of them directed that they should collect my phone, I was about to show them my identity card which was in my chest pocket when one of them gave me a headbutt and struggled to collect my phone from me, other officers joined him in beating me.”
“The wristwatch on my left hand was damaged during the beating. I was later rescued by my colleagues, they even threatens to shoot one of them.”
This is coming amid call to scrap the security agency.
Recall that the lawmaker representing lseyin/ltesiwaju/ Kajola/lwajowa Federal Constituency in Oyo State at the House of Representatives, Shina Peller, has proposed scrapping of the Corps.
Peller proposed that the Nigeria Police Force to take over the responsibilities of the NSCDC.
The lawmaker made the proposal to the House via the National Security And Civil Defence Corps (Repeal and Transition) Bill 2022, which passed first reading last week.
The bill seeks to repeal the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (Amendment) Act 2007, establish a transition management committee to superintend over the NSCDC, develop regulations and implement procedures for the transfer of assets and personnel of the corps to the Nigeria Police Force, and other related matters.
In the bill, Peller noted that “fragmentation of security resources across multiple competing agencies is counterproductive.”
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