Gunmen attack journalist, beat him to coma in Taraba

BY: Manoah Kikekon 

Mohammed Usamat Suleman

Mohammed Usamat Suleman, a journalist, was attacked by some gunmen in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, around 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

He told News Peddlers that the gunmen attacked him in a commercial tricycle he boarded at ATC bypass on his way home.

The Shimo FM staff was treated at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Jalingo's emergency ward, before he was discharged on Thursday.

He claimed that the gunmen, who brandished weapons such as guns and cutlasses, demanded that he produce his recording device.

"When they realised I didn't have the device, they beat me to a coma and pushed me out of the moving tricycle, thinking I was dead, and they were telling the guy holding the gun to shoot me if I move" he explained.

Suleman, who couldn't figure out why he was being targeted by hoodlums, emphasised the need for the radio station management to improve the station's security architecture.

"What surprised me the most was their failure to take away my mobile phone because all they kept demanding was the device at the time I was attacked," he added.

When Daily Post contacted the police for confirmation, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) stated that the command had not been briefed on the matter but promised to contact the GRA police station's Divisional Police Officer (DPO).