By Our correspondent
Mr. Idibia Gabriel, the Kaduna based investigative journalist who was arrested, tortured and brutalized by operatives of the Nigerian police, Kaduna state command, is moving from eye centre to another seeking for the treatment of eye injury he sustained as a result of the assault.
He was on Friday 5th July 2024 referred again to National Eye Centre (NEC), a Federal Medical hospital located in Kaduna for diagnosis test.
Idibia, was referred from 44 army reference hospital Kaduna for eye diagnosis test for the second time after a thorough routine check on his eye on Friday morning by doctors.
His referral request paper to NEC, dated 5th July 2024, read in parts: “44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, 7 Sokoto Raid, Kaduna. Request for Special Examination. F.MED 12. To: Laboratory/X- Ray, urgent, routine. Diagnosis: flashes of light? Pvd blow injury to the left eye -4/52, as clinically relevant information”.
This is against rumours in some quarters that the journalist was arrested but did not sustained any eye injury or was tortured by the police, as amplified by some individuals.
Recalled that the victim journalist and two others were arrested by police for taking snapshot of large number of herds of cattle being Shepherded by some uniform policemen along Kachia highway, around U/Boro in Sabon Tasha area of Kaduna town on 11th June 2024.
According to the victim journalist, who reportedly consulted with the police before taking the pictures, his cell phone and identity card were seized before he was arrested by police and taken to CID office in Kaduna where he was detained, physically tortured and mentally brutalized before his released.
Several private organization, including the Coalition for Whistleblowers Protection and Press Freedom (CWPPF), Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Development (CJID), and other journalists protection bodies have
condemned Nigerian police action, describing it as unlawful and fall below the standard expected of the police.
