(MRA/IFEX) – On 21 March 2005, Ijendu Iheaka, a reporter for “The Punch” newspaper, and Mathia Nwogu, a reporter for “The Sun” newspaper, were mobbed and their tape recorders seized by traders at the Ariaria International Market in Aba, the capital of Abia State, southeastern Nigeria, for entering the traders’ “territory” without giving them prior […]
(MRA/IFEX) – On 21 March 2005, Ijendu Iheaka, a reporter for “The Punch” newspaper, and Mathia Nwogu, a reporter for “The Sun” newspaper, were mobbed and their tape recorders seized by traders at the Ariaria International Market in Aba, the capital of Abia State, southeastern Nigeria, for entering the traders’ “territory” without giving them prior notice and obtaining their permission.
The journalists were attacked when they went to interview Florence Moghalu, a recently widowed trader in the market complex, who alleged that she was being harassed by some men in the market for rebuffing their sexual advances following the death of her husband in 2004. The journalists were alerted to Moghalu’s plight by Alphonsus Udeigbo, the coordinator of a non-governmental organization, Widows’ Organization International.
Iheaka and Nwogu were saved from more serious harm by a spectator who insisted that they should be taken before the chairman of the Ariaria Market Traders’ Association, Eric Obioha. Obioha dispersed the angry crowd of traders after seizing the tape recorders the journalists were using to interview Moghalu.
On 22 March, Obioha addressed a press conference in which he apologised to Iheaka and Nwogu for the assault, saying it was due to “ignorance” on the part of the traders.
