In what is believed to be repressed anger following an earlier query on the Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan affair, Senator Austin Akobundu on Thursday reportedly ordered his aides to brutalise journalist and public affairs analyst, Tony Icheku at a public event – a funeral ceremony – in Ikwuano LGA of Abia State
The Senator representing Abia Central Senatorial district ordered bouncers to deal ruthlessly with the journalist and public affairs analyst, Tony Icheku, at a funeral ceremony in his immediate constituency.
Our reporter gathered that the journalist, during the occasion tried to take a photograph of the Senator with one of the hosts of the funeral, but Akobundu signalled some of the bouncers at the occasion who lifted the journalist out of the occasion and threw him out of the canopy where the senator was sitting.
Following up on the hostile posture of Akobundu, our reporter was told by Friday Uko, a former Councillor of Ikwuano LGA, that the Senator indicated that the journalist should be dealt with.
During the incident, Friday Uko, who was chatting with the Senator, further ordered the bouncers to deal ruthlessly with the journalist, and the heavens would not fall down.
The journalist while recoiling in pains recalled that his problems may have started when in the course of his duties he called out Sen Akobundu to tell his constituents his position on the Sen Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan affair in the Senate, especially seeing that they are both in the same party.
“Sen Akobundu refused to reply, but he repeatedly sent very strong signal to me to stop my inquiries…I refused, as his personal interest contradicts my professional understanding of the role of elected officials on accountability, re: Chapter 2, Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution as amended:
“The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people”