Loading ...From Msughshima Andrew, Makurdi
Correspondents of The Sun and The Punch Newspapers, Mrs. Rose Ejembi and John Charles, on Monday escaped death by the whiskers in Makurdi, the Benue State capital after they were lynched while on duty.
The two journalists had gone to further gather information from families, colleagues and other relatives of a house wife Mrs. Rachael Adetsav who allegedly killed her husband, three children and later stabbed herself to death.
According to the Sun reporter, after visiting the residence of the deceased family and the school of their children, they had gone to the Makurdi local government secretariat where both the late Adetsav and his wife worked before their death.
“At the local government secretariat, some of the colleagues and friends spoke with us disclosed that the family late Nicholas Adetsav were around and in a meeting with officials of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE).
“After speaking with the NULGE Secretary, Comrade Mandu Igber, we walked up to two women who were identified as members of Adetsav family and sought to have audience with them.
“But when they discovered that we were journalists, one of the women flared up and started accusing all journalists of writing rubbish about her family without consulting them.
“We urged her to calm down that we came to them now to hear their own side of the story since it was the police that first broke the news to the public in Makurdi.
“The woman insisted that she would not interact with us because according to her, journalists were the architect of the misinformation and impression the public are having about her family in respect to the sad incidence.
“But when we objected to the assertion by telling her that we took exception to that because we knew nothing about the incidence other than to do our job, the issue resulted to a slight argument which drew the attention of other members of the family and staff of the Local government as well as passers-by to the scene.
Ejembi said within a twinkle of an eye, the family mobilized against the two of them with the intention to mob them and even went ahead to dispossess the Punch reporter of his gadget while they were trying to escape the mob action.
She said it took the intervention of some members of staff of the local government who whisked her through a window to the vigilante office while the aggrieved family held the Punch correspondent hostage.
Some officials of NULGE had to join forces with the vigilante and other public spirited individuals to whisk the two reporters out of the premises.
