Journalist beaten by police and Prison
guards while covering prison riot
On September 11, Mr.
Tope Abiola, the deputy editor of the privately-owned Nigeria Tribune
daily newspaper was beaten unconscious by a combined team of Policemen
and officials of Agodi Prison in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital in
South-west Nigeria while trying to cover the aftermath of a riot by
inmates.
Over 30 prison inmates
were killed when guards tried to quell the riot on September 10 when
many detainees tried to escape. The Oyo State Comptroller of Prisons,
Maureen Omeili had said no journalists would be allowed to visit the
scene of the riot as it was an internal matter that did not concern the
press.
Abiola, one of many
journalists who went to cover the riots at the prison, was taking
photographs of the scene and counting corpses as they were being removed
from the prison when police and guards saw him and pounced on him. They
beat him until he lost consciousness. Other journalists who tried to
help him were also beaten. Abiola was later hospitalised due to injuries
he sustained from the beating.
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