The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ondo State Council has condemned a social media post by one Mr Tolu Babaleye who made unguarded and unprintable comments against journalists in the state over the coverage of Weekend’s Akure Explosion.
Our Union is unhappy that character like Babaleye who has enjoyed so much media patronage in his political and law careers can use his social media page to attack ever hardworking journalists in the state.
Babaleye had on Saturday March 28, 2020 on his Facebook page posted that; “OVERNIGHT EXPLOSION AT AKURE! So up till now nobody can give us details, video or picture of what happened at Akure? Hmnnn, Akure and its Lazy, copy and paste journalist!”
However, Ondo NUJ finds it difficult to believe that a learned individual like Babaleye could call journalists unprintable names for not supplying information concerning the explosion even when the scene was not saved enough for anyone to go on midnight of Friday/Saturday.
For the record, all political class and every segment of the society can testify to the diligence, high professional standard and competence usually deployed by journalists in ondo state in covering and reporting happenings in the state.
Our Union is equally perturbed that a man that calls himself a lawyer could expect journalists to be posting pictures and videos of such massive explosion in the middle of the night in an unsafe environment.
Ondo NUJ under the leadership of Adetona Aderoboye shall not condone any unjust attack on its members and indeed all media professionals in the state by any unbridled individual.
While declaring Babaleye a persona non grata in the media industry, Ondo NUJ therefore demands unreserved apology from Mr Tolu Babaleye for journalists in the state within 7days and to withdraw the said post on Facebook, failure to do so, he shall be blacklisted by the journalists in the state until further notice.
Solidarity Forever!
_E-signed_
_Leke Adegbite_
State Secretary
March 29, 2020.
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