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A journalist in Lagos, Olalekan Fakoyejo has narrated how he was assaulted by a soldier in Lagos over a comment he made during a traffic situation in Ikeja area of Lagos State.
Narrating his encounter with the soldier, Fakoyejo, an Assistant Business Editor with TheCable, said he had boarded a tricycle from Ikeja to Ogba on Saturday when he encountered the soldiers.
According to him, the soldiers were directing traffic when the tricycle conveying him manoeuvered around the Pleasant Event Centre, off Ajao Road, Ikeja.
He said another tricycle had attempted to manoeuvre through traffic but was pulled over by one of the soldiers, who directed the rider to get down from the tricycle as a form of punishment.
Fakoyejo narrated, “The soldier was trying to punish a tricycle driver on a different lane. He asked the driver to step out and climb on the roof of his tricycle. What he was doing was causing traffic, and I said this is causing traffic. I was in another tricycle on another lane, which was not far from where the other tricycle was.
“The soldier heard what I said, and he dragged me out of the tricycle. He started threatening me and ordered me to go meet his colleagues who were not close to the incident. I refused to go, telling him I did nothing wrong, and he doesn’t have the right to order me to go report myself to his colleagues.
“During the period, he kept pushing me backwards towards where he said his colleagues were, then one of his colleagues came to speak to me. As I was explaining to the colleague that walked up to us, the soldier that was threatening me just slapped me immediately I turned my face towards him.”
TheCable had earlier reported that a video recorded by an eyewitness showed the soldier repeatedly shoving the journalist while attempting to hit him with a cudgel picked from the ground, adding, that as the soldier pushed Fakoyejo, his phone hit the tarmac and the screen shattered.
It further noted that passers-by later urged the journalist to leave the scene to avoid further assault, and that as Fakoyejo walked away, two soldiers accosted him and allegedly threatened to whip him while bystanders pleaded for calm.
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