TV Station Workers Petition Inspector
General of Police Over Attacks
Workers of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) located in
Ibadan the Oyo State capital in South-west Nigeria, have petitioned Mr.
Mike Okiro, the Acting Inspector General of Police (AIGP) demanding
investigations into the violent attacks on its members on May 23, 2007
by thugs suspected to be loyalists and working for Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu,
popularly called the strong man of Ibadan politics. The workers said 19
of them sustained various degrees of injuries during the attacks.
Two of the workers’ trade unions: the Radio and Television Theatre
Workers’ Union (RATTAWU) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (INUJ) in
the petition titled: “Report on violent attack on the Broadcasting
Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS)” and dated October 29, 2007, lamented
the indifference of the Oyo State Police Command to the “criminal
attack” on the station which they noted had never occurred in the
history of broadcasting in Nigeria.
The petition signed jointly by chairpersons of the two Unions, Messrs.
Niyi Adeyemo (RATTAWU) and Wole Oladele (NUJ), called on the AIGP to
thoroughly investigate the incident and bring the culprits to book,
insisting that there should be no sacred cow in the administration of
justice.
The Unions specifically fingered Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu and Mr. Yaya
Adetunji, a member of the Oyo State Judicial Service Commission who was
a former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of BCOS as being responsible
for the attacks.
The groups recalled that on May 23, 2007,
armed men, led by Mr. Adetunji,
invaded the premises of Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS)
that houses the Oyo State radio and television stations at Orita
Bashorun in Ibadan, vandalized and carted away broadcast equipment,
disrupted the day’s broadcast and injured some workers, and stole their
property in the process.
Five months after and in spite of reports
of the incident to the Oyo State Police Command, the Unions noted that
no investigation has been carried out on the matter.
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