The Nasarawa State Governor, Umaru Al-Makura, on Tuesday banned the correspondent of PUNCH newspapers, Umar Muhammed, and Rabiu Omaku of the Universal Reporters, an online platform, from reporting activities in the Government House, Lafia.

The decision was the outcome of a lingering disagreement between the journalists and the governor since September 20, 2016.

The issue started when the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, visited the Doma Local Government Area of the state to inaugurate a graduate-farmer scheme.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Ahmed Tukur, had got into a verbal war with PUNCH correspondentand Omaku after they joined their colleagues to cover the event slated for 10am at the government house.

It was gathered that the governor had become uncomfortable after the two reporters reported the protest of the Nigeria Labour Congress in the state against 50 per cent deduction of workers’ salaries.

Our correspondent had reported that during the protest, two civil servants were killed, while five others sustained varying degrees of injuries after being attacked by men of the Nasarawa State Police Command and the state command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

Our correspondent had earlier been confronted by Tukur when the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abubakar Bello, briefed the national leadership of the NLC, led by the president, Ayuba Wabba.

On Tuesday, the Chairman of the Correspondent’s Chapel in the state, Mr. Suleiman Abubakar, told journalists during an emergency meeting in Lafia that the two journalists would no longer be allowed to report government’s activities.

He said, “The Special Adviser to Governor Al-Makura has stated that the two of you (Muhammed and Omaku) have been banned for life from  covering government house and government activities in the state. He said he was acting on the directive of his boss, Umaru Al-Makura.”

The ban of the two journalists will bring the number of journalists to five that had been banned in three months from covering activities of the government.

The other three journalists evicted are Mary Amirikpa of the Nasarawa Broadcasting Service; Iliya Audu of theNigerian Newsday; and a reporter with the Television Continental, Sofia Ogaze.

APC hates freedom of speech.

When ever i look into Nasarawa state issues and i look at BUHARI, i know NIGERIANS have been scam, A.P.C? Never again.

.