The Nigeria Union of Journalists, Nsukka Federated Correspondents' Chapel, has condemned the detention of a journalist on Tuesday by Nsukka Local Government councillors.
In a press statement by the union on Wednesday in Enugu, the chapel described the attack and detention as "a most dishonourable and barbaric act unexpected of lawmakers".
The chapel said it was unbecoming of councillors to detain a journalist who had come all the way from Enugu to Nsukka on their invitation.
The statement read in part, "We wish to express our anger at the unprecedented attack on an Enugu based journalist by some members of the Nsukka Local Government Legislative Council. We take exception to this kind of illegality and obvious rascality from lawmakers.
"We consider it quite weird for these councillors to have detain the journalist and threatening to kill him if he failed to disclose the source of his information.
"We learnt that save for the intervention of three journalists from our chapel, who were alerted to the development, the councillors were not ready to let go of the reporter. This is strange and we condemn it in strong terms."
The statement urged the council Chairman, Tony Ugwu, to caution the councilors to avoid a repeat of such incident.
The union also demanded a letter of apology and undertaking from the councillors.
