Nigeria: IPC Condemns Verbal Attack on Journalist

The International Press Centre (IPC) has condemned former minister Femi Fani-Kayode’s verbal attack on a Daily Trust journalist Eyo Charles.

A recent video shows a visibly angry Fani-Kayode abruptly leaving a press briefing after verbally assaulting Charles, whom he said asked him a ‘stupid’ question.

Development Diaries gathered that the incident happened at a private hotel where Fani-Kayode was briefing journalists on his tour of projects in Cross River State.

The former Minister of Aviation told the reporter that he (Charles) was ‘foolish’ for asking him who ‘bankrolled’ his tour of projects in Cross River and other states in the South-south.

‘You said you have gone round six or seven states to inspect projects undertaken by those governors, and now you are here in Cross River State, rounding off your one-week visit to Governor Ayade. Who is bankrolling you’? Charles asked.

Fani-Kayode lashed out at the journalist, saying, ‘What type of stupid question is that? Bankrolling who? Do you know who you are talking to?

‘What type of insulting question is that? Which bankroll? To do what? Who can give me money for anything? Who do you think you are talking to? Bankroll what? Go and report yourself to your publisher’.

It was also gathered that the journalist was allegedly threatened and interrogated by a security aide to Fani-Kayode. But the former minister has denied the allegation.

In a press statement, the ICP condemned the incident as it found it repulsive and unacceptable, adding that there was nothing wrong with the journalist asking whether his tour is an independent initiative or a sponsored one.

The Executive-Director of the Centre, Lanre Arogundade, said, ‘The former minister had the option of not answering the question and the abuse were totally out of place in the context of the event’.

Similarly, the President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo, said in a statement, Tuesday, that Fani-Kayode’s attack against the reporter was ‘gangster-like’.

‘For him to have embarked on assessment of projects in some states, even though we are yet to be told under what platform, he is doing so, it is proper for the media to hold him to account for his actions and decisions’, part of the statement read.

Following the growing condemnation of his verbal attack on the journalist, Fani-Kayode, who had on Tuesday, 25 August, vowed never to apologise for insulting him, retracted his remarks against Charles on Wednesday morning.

‘I met with my advisors till late last night [Tuesday night] and I wish to say the following. I hereby withdraw the word “stupid” which I used in my encounter with a journalist in Calabar’, he said in a Facebook post.

‘I have many friends in the media who I offended by losing my cool and using such words. I hereby express my regrets for doing so’.

Sources: Nigeria Union of Journalist International Press Centre

Photo source: Femi Fani-Kayode

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