Police Beat, Arrest Journalists, Activists In Cross River

Security agents on Thursday applied force and beat several journalists, activists and protesters in Calabar, Cross River State during the end of bad governance protests.

The journalists had arrived at the popular Mary Slessor roundabout in Calabar where activists and protesters had converged to stage a protest that began on Thursday across the country against bad governance when the security agents, mostly police, arrived and began to beat them.

Several journalists alongside activists and protesters were beaten, overpowered and handcuffed before being driven away by the police to unknown locations.

Reports said their cellphones and camera among other things in their possession were seized even as they were heavily tear gassed and forced into the police waiting vans.

Among the journalists arrested is the managing editor of the online newspaper CrossRiverWatch, Mr Jonathan Ugbal.

On Wednesday, the ruling party in the state, the All Progressives Congress or APC, staged a counter protest across the Calabar metropolis chanting “Say Not To Protest”, “We Don’t Want Protest” among others.

This followed a press conference during the week by the State chairmen of the APC at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja. The Chairman of the Cross River State chapter of the APC, Mr Alphonsus Eba is the secretary of the APC State Chairmen, and he delivered the speech at the conference.

He also announced several meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday geared towards organising counter protest as he had announced during the Abuja press conference that the states controlled by the APC would do so for 10 days.

However, it’s not clear why the journalists were also arrested as the police have not reacted to their arrests.