Barely two weeks after Police stray bullet killed Precious Owolabi a corper reporter of the Channels TV opposite the National Assembly Complex, another journalist, Oke Epia, Editor in Chief of Order Paper has been detained by police attached to the National Assembly.
Epia who honoured the police invitation over an alleged false publication in his publication was seen at the presidential gate police station being interrogated by detectives.
Journalists who visited to know what was happening to their colleague were politely asked to remain outside until interrogation is concluded.
The police in a letter dated July 26 had invited him to appear today at the NASS police station.
Without further information on the complaint, the letter noted that the gesture to Mr Epia is a fact-finding invitation.
Mr Epia in a statement, however, believes that the invitation is part of attacks on his media house by Tony Nwulu, a former member of the House of Representatives.
The relationship with the former legislator started after a publication prior to the 2019 general elections. The social media post profiled Rep members vying for either governorship or deputy governorship positions.
In profiling Mr Nwulu, Order Paper said it reached out to the lawmaker to account for ‘missing funds and projects for Zonal Intervention Projects in the 2016 budget, a claim he is yet to respond to.’
In his reaction on Twitter, Mr Nwulu branded the newspaper as fake, alleging that it never made an assessment of his stewardship.
“Fake medium. No sensible person should take you guys serious. Tribal bigots. At least your faceless promoters should try running for office and effect the change the desire and not just being pathetic armchair critics hiding under a useless medium to extort,” he tweeted on his handle @tonynwulu.
Threat to life
In a statement on Friday, Mr Epia raised an alarm that he and his colleagues have received threats to their lives.
He alleged that himself and other journalists in Order Paper have received threat calls directly from Mr Nwulu and strange calls and text messages from persons some of whom refused to identify themselves.