Mark Itsibor
Kuyoro-Paul
Mark Itsibor, a reporter and Paul Kuyoro, a photojournalist with TELL magazine were today brutalised by thugs and armed policemen attached to a Chinese construction company handling the Alagbole-Yakoyo bridge construction work in Ogun State.
The TELL journalists were attacked while going about their lawful duties, interviewing residents and others about the state of the road and the ongoing construction work.
In the course of their reporting, they approached the chief security officer of the Chinese company handling the road construction work seeking their views and also seeking permission to take photographs of the bridge under construction.
The Chief Security Officer gave them permission to take photographs and shortly after they started taking photographs, they were attacked by thugs who accused them of working for the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
Not even their identity cards as journalists could protect them from the blows and slaps of the thugs who were given coverage by policemen at the construction site.
The TELL journalists said they were then held at gun point by the policemen and made to delete photographs and audio recordings they had earlier taken within the community.
It took the intervention of some residents and Saheed Sani, assistant project manager of the Chinese construction company before the attack was brought to a halt.
Sani prevailed on the combined team of policemen and thugs to return recorders and camera seized from the journalists after about 30 minutes of beating and humiliation.
The assistant project manager later explained to the brutalised journalists that the thugs and policemen may have been guilty of transferred aggression.
He claimed that they have been having a running battle with some residents over what they considered to be the slow pace of the construction work
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