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Police Beat Up Reporter, Smash Her
Camera
On 1 December 2005, Annabelle Ayika, a reporter with New Age newspaper was
beaten up by policemen attached to the Lagos State Governor, who also
smashed her camera as she took photographs of the policemen brutalizing
some traders at the Lagos State Secretariat complex.
Ayika, the Digital Age reporter for the newspaper, was at the Lagos State
Ministry of Environment to cover a demonstration by computer vendors,
under the auspices of the Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association
of Nigeria (CAPDAN), who were protesting the sealing up of their retail
outlets by the state government. The ministry sealed up the traders shops
alleging that they were evading payment of taxes and not keeping their
environment clean.
Ayika said after the computer vendors registered their grievances,
officials of the Ministry of Environment invited policemen at the Lagos
State secretariat complex, which houses the ministry, to deal with the
traders. The policemen promptly unleashed terror on the computer vendors
upon which Ayika started to take photographs of the events.
The reporter was immediately arrested and thoroughly beaten up. Her
digital camera was also deliberately smashed by the policemen, after which
she was taken along with the assistant secretary of CAPDAN, Mr. John Oboro,
to a deputy superintendent of police, Mr. Bayo Suleiman, for
questioning.
Mr. Suleiman later apologized to her for the behaviour of his men, but
rather than take responsibility for the damaged camera, he urged CAPDAN to
buy a new camera for the reporter.
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