Some staff members of Njala University are reported to have assaulted the Managing Editor of NightWatch, Emmanuel Christian C. Thorlie, during a funeral service held at New Life Ministries International Church, Waterloo in the Western Rural District.The awful incident took place on Sunday 11 September 2022 at New Life Ministries International Church in Waterloo where Mr Thorlie attended the funeral service.
It all started when the newspaper editor retired to his seat after he had delivered a tribute to the late Public Relations Officer of Njala University, Ralph Simeon Sesay, who was once an editor of NightWatch, when the Acting Public Relations Officer, Ayuba Koroma, fetched him out of the church to have an audience with him.
Alpha, as he is popularly called, went out of the church with Koroma, when a group of Academic Staff Association members violently targeted the NightWatch managing editor and beat him severely.
Journalists at the scene informed Forum that SLAJ members including Secretary General Alhaji Manika Kamara, Stanley Bangura and others made a timely intervention and saved the life of Emmanuel C. Thorlie from the hands of the Njala University ASA members.
Thorlie is quoted to have said ASA Njala University members had accused him of using the word “dorty”, meaning ‘dirty’, in his tribute to the late PRO, Ralph Simeon Sesay against the university, for which they were going to teach him some bitter lessons.
SLAJ Secretary General Kamara said the worse could have happened had he not intervened.
Njala University Ag PRO Ayuba admitted that he fetched the NightWatch Managing Editor Emmanuel C. Thorlie from the church and confirmed the assault on him but he never thought he could be assaulted the way the university ASA members did to him.
