New York Times reporter, Mr. Christoph Koettl, has reacted over the Nigerian Army action on his close reports on the activities of the military against the members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, known as Shi’ites.
Mr. Koettl, a Visual Investigations journalist with NYTIMES, and his team had investigated Nigerian Army activities on how they manhandled Shi’ites protesters in Abuja in their previous protest, few months ago.
Mr. Koettl, who shared a link of his team reports detailed how they carried out the investigations which faulted Nigerian Army’s claim that they shoot at the Shi’ites protesters based on provocation and in retaliation.
According to him, “The military started shooting. Designated members of the march were tasked with controlling traffic. They wore bright vests, easy to spot throughout the videos. As they approached the military — unarmed — soldiers shot at them at close range.
“The protesters did not attack the checkpoint. We see several protesters throw rocks at the soldiers in response to the shooting. Notice that most of the soldiers who fired their machine guns did not take cover. There’s no indication that they were being fired at”, Mr. Koettl wrote on twitter.
Reacting towards his investigative reports, Nigerian Army blocked him on twitter.
Sharing the news, Mr. Koettl took a screenshot of the HQNigerianArmy account, and he wrote; “Very mature”.
However, a Nigerian twitter user, @Chrischeese1, reacted on the action of the Army, he wrote;
“Very disgraceful from @HQNigerianArmy.This is the @nytimes journalist who exposed the army.A govt/public instutution funded by tax payers money should not block the public from their page even if they are critics. @MBuhari @NGRSenate @bukolasaraki @segalink @benmurraybruce FYA
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