•Acting Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi
A mild drama that could have snowballed into a bigger crisis was averted at the premises of Kebbi State Customs Area Command today when an altercation ensued between the Kebbi State Customs Public Relations Officer, MT Salisu and the DAILY INDEPENDENT State Correspondent, Haruna Usman.
Usman, who was at the Area Command to cover a press conference at the invitation of the Customs Deputy PRO, Mr Mustapha, was confronted by MT Salisu, who demanded to know who invited him to the event, reports Daily Independent.
According to Usman’s account, before he could answer the questions, the Customs PRO began to haul insults at him and even threatened to lock him up for showing up at the event uninvited.
“You said you won’t attend our function, so what are you doing here? I will lock you up,” Salisu said, before his deputy and the Daily Trust Kebbi State Correspondent intervened to prevent an escalation.
Salisu then ordered Usman out of the premises of the Customs Area Command right there in the presence of other journalists.
According to Usman, the feud with MT Salisu began when the DAILY INDEPENDENT Correspondent made a complaint about the ill-treatment of journalists by Mr Salisu anytime they attend press briefings at the Kebbi State Customs Area Command.
When the ill-treatment became unbearable, Usman said he sent the Customs PRO a text message not to invite him to any events in future due to the ill-treatment meted out to journalists by him.
Angered by the message, the PRO and his deputy allegedly came up with a plan to invite Usman to another event just to publicly embarrass him. He also issued a threat to arrest and incarcerate the journalist.
The DAILY INDEPENDENT Correspondent says he has put the Kebbi State Customs PRO’s threats on public records in case anything happens to him in future.
