Armed youths believed to be political thugs have reportedly disrupted a live interview conducted by Arise Television in a hotel in the Orazi axis of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
According to Vanguard, the thugs stormed the hotel premises while a team of Arise TV crew were conducting a live interview with former Commissioner for Employment Generation and Empowerment, Leloonu Nwibubasa.
The thugs, who forced the live interview to end halfway, had carted away the medium’s camera and other equipment.
A source who spoke to the aforementioned publication alleged that the thugs were armed and had invaded the hotel around 9:15pm.
It was alleged that Nwibubasa, appearing on the live programme, News Night, was speaking on the political situation in the state and was speaking on issues not aligning with the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, when a man who was at the hotel’s lounge called on the assailants.
The source, alleged that both the Commissioner and the Arise Cameraman, escaped by the whiskers, adding that the angry thugs who claimed that the interview that sounded anti-Wike was conducted in their territory broke into rooms in search of the duo.
The source narrated: “They were chanting in their local language (Ikwerre) that they would not allow such interview on their land. They were forcing doors open searching for the former commissioner and the Arise TV guys.
“The workers in the hotel started running helter-skelter. They later got to the spot where the interview was holding and started threatening the former commissioner and the Arise crew to discontinue the interview and forced them to stop.”
A reporter with Arise TV, Andy Omano, who had also escaped the scene, reached out to the police for distress.
He said: “At that point I called the police control room and also put a call across to some of my colleagues. The police responded and said they were on their way to the hotel.
“The Divisional Police Officer in charge of the area arrived with his men. Together with the hotel manager they ensured that the commissioner and the journalist came down and were taken out of the hotel to the Kala Police Station where they made statements on what transpired.”
The Arise TV Camera man, Promise, while narrating his ordeal, said, “The men seized my Sonny Canada Zed 280, industrial tripod, wireless microphone and other accessories.”
“I had just filed that report before starting with the former Commissioner in a programme called News Night when two men stormed the place and disrupted the live programme. “
Promise said the thugs only took to their heels on sighting the police.
However, the former commissioner said it took the intervention of policemen deployed for their rescue to bring them out of the hotel.
Nwibubassa condemned the attack, stating that the development is not healthy in a democracy.
He said: “I was already rounding off the interview and speaking about the forth-coming 2027 general elections. They (assailants) have are already showing us signs of what will happen. See how they were breaking doors looking for me. Why? This is a free society. “