Channels Television reporter in Rivers State, Mr Charles Opurum, has narrated his ordeal in the hand of a police officer, while covering the “TakeItBackMovement” protest in Port Harcourt.
The incident happened on Monday, April 7, 2025, at the CFC flyover, when the police tried to disperse protesters who went on a peaceful demonstration to demand the reinstatement of all democratically elected political officeholders in the state.
Opurum, in an interview with newsmen, revealed that he was beaten and dragged into a police vehicle while carrying out his constitutional assignment, even after showing his Identity card to the police officer.
He wondered how covering a peaceful demonstration as a Journalist could have warranted such an attack from the police.
Narrating his ordeal, the Channels TV reporter explained that, “I was covering the takeitback protest here in Port Harcourt. While they were marching from the Isaac Boro Park towards the federal secretariat, where the police said they had approval to protest, I really don’t know the arrangement between the protesters and the police because it’s not my job; my job is to report on what is happening.
“Along the line, the police started shooting, started firing teargas, somewhere under the CFC flyover, I tried to film what was happening because that’s the job, and an overzealous police man attacked me.
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“He dragged me by the shirt, dragged me by the trouser, said who are you? So, I identified myself, I even showed him my ID card, he now said even if you are a Journalist and we tell you not to protest are you not supposed to listen to us? I said I am not protesting, I am here to report on what is actually happening.”
He added that the police officer kept “slapping and dragging me, he tried to force me into a bus but I said no, I can’t enter this bus because this is not a police van, rather put me in a police van let me know that I am in the custody of the police. So he dragged me to the second van and pushed me inside.”
Opurum noted that the officer tried to take his phone but he resisted and held his phone back.
On how he was released, Opurum said, “when I got into the van and he closed the van, it turned out that the people in the van where members of the CP monitoring unit and they know me, they were even surprised to see me.
“They asked me, Charles, what happened, what did you do? I said I didn’t do anything I was just filming, observing what was happening. After waiting for like five minutes, they said I could go, please just be careful and they apologized to me for their colleague arresting me. They actually apologized to me. That’s how I was released. That’s basically the summary of what transpired between myself and the police in the line of duty.”
