I NEVER IMAGINED IT’LL BE THIS TOUGH... my story as a Court and Police reporter

      

This massage was like a raging fire that consumed my mind. Throughout the weekend, thought about the new beat enslaved my mind. It lead me into a dreamy retrospection of the meeting where the beat was assigned to me. 

Fellow journalist were seated on the conference table paying heed to be the editor. It was at the regular editorial conference where editor announce beats for the reporters.  With the sense of sanctity and seriousness, he read through the list and came to the last name where he turned to me, probed my face and started reading again. Emeaba, you have been assigned to cover court and police.

I chuckled as he rounded off the meeting. I wanted to talk but nothing came to my mind. I was only left in a puzzle about the assignment of this specialized beat. The court and police beat, as important as they are tend to scare journalists as they are said to be fraught with danger.

However, I could not think much about the beat until the weekend, precisely Sunday, when I started preparing for the new beat. As I set my mind on the new assignment, I momentarily reflected on the inherent dangers of the beats.

I remember what we were taught in school that a journalist covering court and police can write himself into trouble. The following day, I woke up with an avowed determination to excel in the beat. As to demonstrate my desire to succeed, I chose one of my best suits to wear for the challenging assignment. However, I warned myself that I needed to be cautious with the way I go about it.

One unique aspect of my assignment was that I was covering my news beats in Port-Harcourt from Aba, so, as I was to go, I boarded a good vehicle from the bus Treminus in Aba. I Aba early enough in other to arrive in Port-Harcourt by about 9.00am session.

At exactly 8:00am, my vehicle made it to Eleme Junction in Port-Harcourt. So there we were caught up in the usual traffic jam of Aba Road. We tried to beat the traffic hold up to no avail despite the recklessness exhibited by the driver, his effort to drive through proved abortive and we got to the park by 11:00am before I could pick another vehicle to the court. The time had been fast spent and in fact it was already noon.

First impression they say matters a lot in any assignment. So, I wanted my first outing in my beats to be spectacular. As a means of achieving this, I wanted to start with a visit to the Chief Registrar. The Port Harcourt Judiciary complex is very big. It is a vast area that comprises various magistrate courts, State High Courts and Administrative Offices. As a new person, I needed a lead to the Chief Registrar’s Office.

It was at this point that I encountered lawyers with their pomposity. I had reasoned that lawyers should not be carried away with their sense of pride that they will not relate with someone finding his way in such a place, of course, some of the people I encountered were good assistance while others just exposed their ignorance of the place, but as a journalist, I was able to get to my destination.

The Chief Registrar was not in the office, so I had to wait for some time. It was at the place of waiting the “big Oga” that I discovered that everybody is as important as any other person. People were walking in and out to solicit for other people’s assistance.

However, while I am ready to relate every bit of my experience, money changing hands in the process of people soliciting for one assistance of the other, should not be part of it. I spent the first day without actualizing my objective. Disappointed the day the first day ended. I never bother to repeat a visit to the Registrar’s Office. All I did was to commence my actual coverage of the beat by visiting the court and reporting arguments of the self-acclaimed learned gentlemen.

In some of the courts I visited, I discovered that my presence created some suspicion. It is a public place where anybody can enter and hear from assignments. In some cases I had to make my identity known to the court clacks though some of them resented my present.

Police reporting is not equally an easy beat. One must acquaint oneself with in depth information about the system. I know that lack of care could result in libel suits with the corresponding consequences. This knowledge informed my brief visit to the Rivers State Police Command Mosco Road, Port Harcourt.

The place was a bee-hive of activities. The ranks and file of the force where there with officers all seriously engage with their duties. The office of the Public Relation Officer, Uche Chukwu (PHD) was particularly so busy that one could think the activities in the command revolves around the image maker. Without seeing Dr. Chukwuma before, one would, judging from his PHD and the way people were trooping in and out of his office, take him to be one stoutly built, potbellied difficult man. 

But the man was different from my assumption, as I was ushered into his office, I met an intelligent young man. After my chat with him, he assured me of regular information that would help in keeping the society crime fee. The PPRO , like other policemen, happened to be careful in relating with me. It is interesting to be a police and court reporter

 

As Abia council crises take a toll ...2002 Features

 

Features writer Onuoha Emeaba examines the crisis rocking some councils in Abia State and posit that  the genesis of such conflict could be traced to bid by the respective leadership of such councils to satisfy those who sponsored them into office.

Since the return of democracy in 1999 many local government council of Abia State have been enmeshed in crisis. The council activities seem to have been bogged down as everything that could be wrong, have gone wrong. The staff are not being paid while the executive and the legislatures are at each other throat.

The citizens too are complaining of lack of democracy dividends. Their grouse is that the politicians who control the resources at the grassroots are only busy siphoning public money their private pockets.

In the manner of vulture preying on the carcass, these politicians at the local government area are said to be struggling over the loots of the council. To worsen it they are pointing accusing fingers at each other, and washing their dirty linens in the law of courts.

While the political quagmire permeates through all the local government in the state, observers hold the view that the crisis is prevalent in areas that generate high revenue. That is probably why Aba North which is considered as the richest Local Government Area with high concentration of industries and Ariria market the biggest market east of the Niger is now crisis ridden.

Unfortunately the Aba North which generates more revenue than other councils cannot pay staff for more than five months. Even the councilors insinuated that the treasury is rendered so porous that it cannot finance even a contract that would take the least amount of money.

The councilors have already indicted the council chairman chief Eme Abali Mba for rendering the council financially useless. As a first step the councilors moved to impeach the chairman after serving 14 days of the allegation leveled against him. But instead of adhering to the legislative order of the council, Chief Mba applied for an enforcement of his fundamental right in a suit no A/M167/2001, in the high court of Abia State, holden at Aba.

Despite the fact that the court presided by Justice T. Akomas granted leave to the applicant of the enforcement of his fundamental right, the councilor who felt that the chairman had a lots of skeleton in his cupboard vowed never to relent in exposing the dirty deals of the chairman.

The conflit lingered until the Abia State government set up a panel through the hourable judge of state to investigate the allegations containing in the notice of allegations of gross misconduct against the executive chairman.

After hearing the submission by cousels chairman, Chief Mba and the councilors, and visiting some projects the chairman claimed to have done the panel stated that the various projects shown to them were unsatisfactory. In what seemed a contradiction of their report, the panel exonerated the chairman from the alleged gross misconduct, but agreed that the things quoted by the chairman for certain projects were grossly inadequate for such amount of money.

The panel did not however, indict the chairman personally but the entire politicians for failing in their duties. “it is however the view of the panel that when the legislative council applies all it s power under the local government law, project and the finances of the local government will be better managed and monitor so that individual officers responsible for any specific misconduct could be isolated and dealt with”, the  panel concluded in their report.

Regrettably, the impeachment crisis seem to have subsided as the panel granted reprieve to the chairman, but the council had already been shattered by the crisis. The councilor and the executive chairman of Aba North have thous wasted every available kobo in the council of their individual struggle for political supremacy to the detrimate of the people. This way many projects have been left undone and staff salaries, including that of the councilors are yet to be unpaid. The councils treasury is just empty.