Opinion: Umah’s Koboko and the Press, By Chris Wolumati Ogbondah
Although the governor has apologised, following the media backlash that loudly greeted his unprovoked toxic utterance, it is instructive now to remind Mr. Umahi and students of the history of Nigerian journalism of a 1973 event involving a governor and the wielding of the “koboko” against the press. That governor paid a costly price for this.
On March 20, 1974, the chief justice of Rivers State, Mr. Justice Ambrose Allagoa, a kinsman of the military governor, delivered judgement against the governor, and awarded N200 at the time against the governor for every stroke of the “koboko” that the reporter received. Nigerian press organisations’ response to the governor’s action made the governor’s life miserable. Lateef Jakande, the then chairman of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria , in a telegram to the governor, said: “I cannot believe … the barbaric act of …inflicting bodily injuries on him ….I urge you…to condemn publicly, unequivocally and without any reservations whatsoever this primitive assault on the freedom of the press and the dignity of man.
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