By Emeka Nze
Accredited Journalists covering the ongoing national conference were yesterday barred by the security agents from their sitting positions inside the gallery at the back of the conferees.
The move which the security agents claimed was for fear of insecurity by the delegates exempted only TV Camera operators but also affected the photojournalists from the print media who cannot go into the gallery to perform their lawful functions.
Although the press gallery is upstairs, most of them usually prefer to sit behind the delegates in order to have a good view of the happenings at the plenary for the purpose of accurate reporting.
Before this decision to dismiss journalists from the NJI main gallery, venue of the national conference, one of the security agents (name withheld) had told Blueprint on Tuesday that the delegates were afraid of insecurity and suspected that the pressmen might be used to carry out attack on the delegates.
The security agent had courteously appealed to our reporter to ensure that he got a convenient place at the press gallery upstairs in order not to be harassed by the operatives.
To effect the new order, yesterday a new set of security operatives were posted to the various exits and entrances of the conference venue to prevent reporters or photojournalists from getting access into the main gallery.
The Assistant Secretary Media and Communication, Mr Akpandem James yesterday appealed to journalists to accept the decision in good faith saying that the situation would normalise for journalists to return to their various sitting positions and duties.
He was reported to have told some journalists that an alarm was raised by a prominent delegate from the South east over the presence of an unidentified person who sat in between the delegates and on interrogation he claimed to be a journalist which was later proved to be false.
According to Akpandem, the South east delegate had complained that the presence of journalists inside the gallery has become a source distraction to them forcing the leadership to take the decision to evacuate newsmen from the gallery.
When our reporter contacted the head of the security operatives in the conference, he declined to comment on the issue urging him to contact the spokesperson of the conference as he did not have the power to comment on the matter.