In the early hours of November 7, 2019, Mr. Abayomi Adeshida, a photojournalist with the Vanguard newspapers, was severely beaten by security aides attached to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo. He had to go to the hospital for treatment due to the battery.
While taking photographs of the Vice President taking a tour of the exhibition stands at the event, five operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) pounced on him hitting and dragging him on the floor. In the process, his professional camera was damaged.
Abayomi was at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja covering during the opening session of the Nigeria Diaspora Investment Summit organised by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission NiDCOM, chaired by Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa when he was beaten up.
The photojournalist said he was not told what his supposed offence was to warrant the assault on him.
Narrating his ordeal, he said: “I was shocked when these DSS started beating me for no apparent reason. They tore off my Presidential Villa accreditation tag on the shirt and dragged me on the floor while hitting me and kicking me.
“I believe they would have done much worse if not for the intervention of the Vice-President’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC), who I noticed was making hand movements for them to leave me alone.
“I am feeling pains all over my body and a particular severe pain on my right leg on which I don’t even know what they hit me with”.
