Soldiers Brutalizes Journalist.

Soldiers attached to the Awka South Local
Government demolition team in Anambra State,
on Thursday, beat up and arrested Mr. David-
Chyddy Eleke, a reporter with the Leadership
newspaper.
The soldiers descended on Eleke as he took a
photograph of a demolition exercise on Engr.
Arthur Eze Avenue, Awka.
They seized him by the collar of his shirt, hit and
threw him into their patrol van before taking
him away to an unknown destination.
It was a distraught colleague of Eleke, Uzoma
Nzeagwu of The Guardian, who witnessed the
incident that sent distress calls about it to
reporters.
For a long time, Eleke’s whereabouts could not
be established as he was not picking his calls.
Apparently, the soldiers had seized his mobile
telephone.
As the news got to the state Chairman of the
Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mrs. Tochukwu
Omelu, who was presiding over a state congress
of the union at Amawbia, she dismissed the
meeting and made contacts until it was
established that Eleke was being held at the
Awka South LG headquarters.
She then led her members to the Awka South
Secretariat, where the LG Chairman, Mr.
Emmanuel Okoye, was presiding over a meeting
of the demolition task force, with the soldiers
standing guard outside the building.
As the NUJ team approached, Eleke was
released. But the NUJ chairman insisted on
seeing the council chairman. After an initial
hesitation by members of his staff, Omelu was
let in.