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Television cameraman assaulted by policemen
On 6 January 2006, a
cameraman with Galaxy Television in Lagos, Deji Ademakinwa, was assaulted
by policemen at a parking lot in Ikoyi area of Lagos and seriously
wounded.
Ademakinwa, armed with
his camera, was sitting in a stationary vehicle waiting for his colleague
who had gone into a nearby building when the policemen who were extorting
money from commercial motor drivers sighted him where the vehicle that
brought him and the other Galaxy Television staff was parked.
Thinking that he must
have been recording their activities with his camera, the policemen
attacked Ademakinwa, beating and injuring him in the process. The
bloodied cameraman was thereafter taken to the hospital for treatment.
Dotun Saseyi, Galaxy
Television's Head of News and Current Affairs said although the policeman
who committed the assault took the injured cameraman to the hospital and
paid for his treatment, the management of the station also met with the
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Emmanuel Adebayo, to formally
lodge a complaint about the conduct of the police officers. The Police
Commissioner promised that the Police would investigate the incident and
punish the erring policeman.
The Police
subsequently took swift action on the matter and Idowu Akinsusi and Alaba
Olumide, the two policemen responsible for assaulting the cameraman, have
been dismissed from service by the Lagos State Police Command. The State
Police Command charge them with leaving their lawful duty post at Onikan
Police Division and engaging in illegal duty else where. They were
subjected to orderly room trial and found guilty, leading to their
dismissal. |
