Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State council, has decried what it described as the invasion of the Apapa-Lagos premises of The Sun Newspapers by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
NUJ in a statement issued today also gave EFCC a 72-hour ultimatum to publicly apologise to The Sun management and the affected staff.
The statement signed by NUJ Chairman, Deji Elumoye, described as barbaric “the Gestapo-style seal-up of the newspaper house”.
The Union wondered why EFCC will ransack the premises of the media outfit without any search warrant and subject innocent workers to unnecessary harassment and stress.
According to the statement, the EFCC by the invasion had infringed on the fundamental human rights of the workers whose movement in and out of the company was curtailed by security operatives for over an hour
Elumoye stated: “This is a great violation of the freedom of movement and association of the affected Nigerian citizens as entrenched in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended.”
The Council gave EFCC a 72-hour ultimatum to publicly apologise to The Sun management and the affected staff for the unwarranted siege “failure which we will not hesitate to ask our team of lawyers to seek redress in court”.
Lagos NUJ added that if The Sun as a media outfit had erred or had issues with EFCC or anybody/ organisation, the court of law is the proper place to seek redress “rather than taking the laws into their hands as EFCC just did”.
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