On September 20, 2025, operatives of the Lagos State Environmental and Enforcement Unit and the Building Control Agency (LASBCA) attacked, brutalised, and detained Mr Sunday Essiet, a photojournalist with Blueprint newspaper, for 10 hours while he was covering a demolition exercise at the Jakande Estate in the Isolo area of Lagos State.
Although Mr Essiet had obtained permission from a senior police officer to cover the event, when other police operatives and some louts saw him with a camera, they pounced on him, beat him, tore his clothes, threw away his official identification card, and seized his camera.
The photojournalist said after being brutalised, he was dragged and locked in a black maria van from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. without food.
Meanwhile, CP Olohundare Jimoh, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, was contacted, and he made a call to the chairman of LASBCA, CSP Adetayo Akerele, who then ordered Mr Essiet’s release. However, his camera and other gadgets were not returned to him.
