Sergeant-at-arm must stop harassment of journalists covering National Assembly

Journalists of major media organisations accredited to cover the National Assembly have been facing harassment and intimidation from officials of sergeant-at-arm charged with the responsibility of providing security for the parliament. Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as Amended empowers the press to hold the government accountable to the […]

Journalists of major media organisations accredited to cover the National Assembly have been facing harassment and intimidation from officials of sergeant-at-arm charged with the responsibility of providing security for the parliament.

Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as Amended empowers the press to hold the government accountable to the people at all times. Journalists are also referred to as members of the “Fourth Estate of the Realm” because of the important role they play in holding the executive, the legislative and the judicial arms of government accountable to the people. Thus, accredited journalists deployed to cover the National Assembly are constitutionally empowered to carry out their functions.

However, it is disheartening to observe that personnel of sergeant-at-arm at manning the entry points to the National Assembly have continued to harass and intimidate innocent journalists who come to the National Assembly to carry out their constitutionally guaranteed responsibility. They see journalists as enemies and prey that must be devoured! 

These sergeant-at-arm personnel often harass journalists in their efforts to deny them entry on alleged grounds that they were not having National Assembly identity cards and entry permits. Meanwhile, it is worthy of note that journalists covering both the Senate and the House of Representatives had since January 2025 submitted their letters and documents to the National Assembly’s Directorate of Information for re-accreditation and issuance of entry permits which are yet to be issued to them three months after. Journalists were left with no other option than to be using the acknowledgement copies of the accreditation letters issued to them to be accessing the National Assembly to do their duties pending when the National Assembly bureaucracy is ready to issue them entry permits.

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However, some overzealous officials of sergeant-at-arm manning the gate have suddenly began to harass accredited journalists on ground that they were not having entry permits and ID cards. The question begging for answer is, how is it the fault of journalists that the National Assembly’s Directorate of Information failed to issue them entry permits or ID cards to access the National Assembly almost three months after they have presented their letters to them for re-accreditation? How long will it take the National Assembly to print out ordinary entry permits which are nothing but just a piece of paper in which they emboss the passports of individual journalists covering the National Assembly upon? Why must journalists covering the National Assembly be made to undergo rigorous re-accreditation processes every year without being issued temporary identity cards by the National Assembly bureaucracy? Is it rocket science to produce identity cards for journalists? Why should the officials of sergeant-at-arm be harassing and intimidating journalists over a matter that is not their fault? Are journalists responsible for issuing themselves entry permits or ID cards to access the National Assembly? The whole blame is on the doorstep of the National Assembly bureaucracy and not the poor journalists!

It is disheartening to see how personnel of sergeant-at-arm assaulted an elderly photojournalist with one of the national newspapers at the entrance of the White House on Wednesday. Such action is condemnable and must be investigated and those responsible sanctioned to prevent recurrence and serve as a deterrent to others. Other journalists who were trying to access the National Assembly were also harassed.

It is in the light of the above that I call on the head of Sergeant-at-arm in the National Assembly to call his overzealous officials manning the gates to order! The harassment of accredited journalists must stop! Journalists covering the National Assembly are neither criminals nor intruders, hence, must not be treated as one.

Also, the perennial issues of delay by the Directorate of Information in the accreditation and issuance of entry permits to journalists of major media organisations deployed to cover the parliament must be promptly addressed. Executives of the Senate Press Corps and the House of Representatives Press Corps must as a matter of urgency interface with the head of Sergeant-at-arm and the head of the National Assembly’s Directorate of Information to address this anomaly. 

In addition, media aides to the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and those of the deputy senate President and deputy speaker who are mostly former members of the National Assembly Press Corps must wade in and address these anomalies once and for all. Enough is enough! Harrassment of journalists in the National Assembly must stop!

 

Onogwu Daniel, a public affairs analyst wrote this letter from Utako, Abuja