This news coming from Ilorin, Kwara State in Nigeria is very disturbing. Seven officials of
the Nigerian Immigration Services allegedly
beat up and tore the clothes of a reporter, Miss Damilola
Biodun-Balogun, and a cameraman, Mr.
Vincent Omolere, of the Nigerian Television Authority Ilorin.
This is how Punch Newspaper is reporting the news after the cut.
Narrating their ordeal to journalists in Ilorin on Monday,
Omolere, who said they had been on treatment since the incident and could only talk well on Monday, stated
that they were heavily brutalised. He added that the female victim had bled profusely after the
incident and had been receiving treatment
in a private hospital in Ilorin.
He stated that the
incident occurred in Ilorin at a wedding reception on Saturday at Roemichs
Event Palace around 11am. Omolere said, “We sat on one of the empty tables at the
event waiting for the wedding to begin.
While we were there, one of the
stewards at the event approached
us and told us to move to another table. Suddenly, a female immigration officer
identified as Kudirat Bakare, walked up to the
reporter and slapped her from behind on the ground that she was still
sitting while talking to the steward.
“This prompted me to
challenge the officer for her action but Bakare rushed outside, claiming that I
wanted to beat her up! As we were leaving the venue as a result of the assault,
little did we know that the female
officer had gone to mobilise her male colleagues.
We learnt that she lied to them that we were about to beat up one of their
high-ranking officers from Abuja who
happened to be the groom’s mother.
“Consequently, the
officers molested us, and tore our clothes. One of the officers, Omotunde Johnson, threw away our camera through the gate,
claiming that we entered the venue
without an invitation despite that I wore a jacket with the inscription, ‘NTA
Ilorin’.”
My hope is that somebody somewhere will read this and take the necesary action.
1 comment:
This is so sad, shame on them
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