TheCable

Emmanuel Antswen, the NAN reporter who wrote about a protest at the internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp at the International Market, Makurdi, has been released.

NAN reports that the Benue police command released Antswen on Saturday at about 11 am after spending one night in the open cell at the state criminal investigation department.

Kris Atsaka, chairman of the Benue state chapter of Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), signed the bail papers for the release of Antswen.

The reporter was said to have been arrested on Friday for reporting that the IDPs at the Makurdi camp had on September 11 protested an alleged diversion of relief materials.

Boniface Ortese, executive secretary of the Benue state emergency management agency, was said to have petitioned NAN over the story claiming N3 billion as damages while the agency insisted on the validity of the report.

Ortese had also claimed that the protests were instigated by the NAN reporter to enable him to get a story to write.

In a solidarity visit with the NUJ over the journalists’ arrest, Cletus Akwaya, publisher of Daily Assets newspapers, advised journalists to stand in defense of one another when in crises.

He commended the NUJ chairman for standing for his colleagues.