On March 11, 2026, Mr Habeeb Adejobi, a journalist with Muri International Television (MITV), was attacked by suspected loyalists of the Chairman of Kosofe Local Government Area, Hon. Moyo Ogunlewe, inside the council secretariat in Ogudu, Lagos, while carrying out his professional duties.
Adejobi went to the council secretariat to cover the screening exercise for newly appointed Supervisors and Special Advisers, when a group of young men descended on him without provocation.
According to the journalist, the attackers were led by a man identified by people around as the driver to the council Chairman.
Recounting his ordeal, Mr Adejobi said, “I was at the council secretariat to cover the screening of the Supervisors and Special Advisers when some boys suddenly pounced on me. They were led by a man people around identified as the Chairman’s driver”.
The journalist said the situation escalated when the chairman arrived and asked for his identification card.
Mr Adejobi said: “The first thing he asked me was where my identification card was. I discovered I did not have it with me at that moment. Without further discussion, he instructed some people around him to seize my cameras.”
He said he was beaten with a plank, while officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) attached to a “special task force” also joined in the assault and that right there, in the presence of the chairman, adding that the same man who had first approached him suddenly began to hit him. His camera was damaged during the incident.
Adejobi disclosed that one of the security officials dragged and took him to Area H police station in Ogudu. Continuing, he said his phone was seized, and thereafter taken to the Divisional Police Officer in the presence of the chairman’s chief of staff, Abiola Akinola.
The Divisional Police Officer, Mr Lawrence Kayode, later intervened after the case was brought to his attention and the journalist was later released from the police station after the intervention of police authorities to seek medical attention.
