….We’ll Hold Fani -Kayode Responsible If Anything Happens To Our Reporter-Daily Trust

The International Press Centre (IPC) has condemned the verbal assault inflicted on Daily Trust Newspaper Journalist Eyo Charles by a former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani Kayode.

According to a press state made available to journalists Tuesday by Communications Officer International Press Centre, Lagos Olutoyin Ayoade “The journalist, Eyo Charles, who reports for the Daily Trust Newspaper, was seen in a video posted by The Cable, an online newspaper. asking the former Minister at a press conference in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, Nigeria, if he was funded to embark on a tour of projects in the state to which he responded with verbal attacks”.

The Minister was also seen threatening to deal with Journalist Eyo Charles, who has since claimed that a security detail in the entourage of the former Minister confronted him after the press conference.

IPC views this development as repulsive and unacceptable since there was nothing wrong with Journalist Eyo Charles wanting to know if the tour was an independent initiative or a sponsored one.

“The former Minister had the option of not answering the question and the abuses were totally out of place in the context of the event”,

IPC therefore demands that the former Minister should apologise to the Journalist and give an assurance of his safety in view of the alleged further threats.

IPC is of the view that journalists who are saddled with the constitutional obligation of monitoring governance and holding the government accountable to the people should not be subjected to harassment in the course of duty.

Meanwhile, the management of Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust, has condemned the reprehensible actions of Femi Fani- Kayode who in a video clip now gone viral, verbally assaulted repeatedly, it’s Reporter Eyo Charles in the course of doing his job.

According to a press statement signed by the Executive Director/Editor-in-Chief Naziru Abubakar “we urge the Nigeria Police to take note, that if anything happens to Charles, Daily Trust will hold Fani-Kayode responsible, especially due to the intensity of the verbal threats he issued during the shocking incident”.