{"id":74572,"date":"2025-08-30T11:37:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T11:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=74572"},"modified":"2025-08-30T11:37:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T11:37:28","slug":"nuj-slams-nrc-boss-for-harassing-journalist-demands-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/30\/nuj-slams-nrc-boss-for-harassing-journalist-demands-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"NUJ Slams NRC Boss for Harassing Journalist, Demands Apology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Olokuta Rofiat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Council, has condemned the alleged harassment and verbal assault on Comrade Ladi Bala, a transport reporter with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr. Kayode Opeifa.<\/p>\n<p>The incident reportedly occurred on August 27, 2025, when Bala, who is also the immediate past president of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), was covering the aftermath of a train derailment along the Abuja-Kaduna rail line.<\/p>\n<p>Eyewitnesses said Opeifa disrupted her live coverage, hurled derogatory words such as \u201cstupid,\u201d \u201cfoolish woman,\u201d and \u201cuseless,\u201d while questioning her professionalism and appearance.<\/p>\n<p>He allegedly ordered security operatives to force her out of the scene and threatened to report her to security agencies, the Presidency, and NTA management with the intent of having her dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement signed by its secretary, Comrade Jide Oyekunle, the NUJ described Opeifa\u2019s actions as a gross violation of press freedom, human dignity, and the constitutional rights of journalists under Sections 22 and 39 of the 1999 Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>The union further alleged that Opeifa insulted NUJ FCT Chairperson, Grace Ike, when she attempted to intervene.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis conduct is dehumanizing, an affront on democracy and the rule of law, and a grave threat to press freedom in Nigeria,\u201d the NUJ said, warning that hostility toward journalists undermines transparency, accountability, and public enlightenment.<\/p>\n<p>The council demanded an immediate, unreserved public apology from Opeifa and urged the NRC to take corrective measures to prevent a recurrence.<\/p>\n<p>It reaffirmed solidarity with Bala and reiterated its zero tolerance for the harassment of journalists, particularly women in the profession, vowing to pursue all necessary channels to ensure accountability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Olokuta Rofiat &nbsp; The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Council, has condemned the alleged harassment and verbal assault on Comrade Ladi Bala, a transport reporter with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Mr. Kayode Opeifa. The incident reportedly occurred on August [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":74573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74574,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74572\/revisions\/74574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}