(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested the violent beating, on 4 March 2005, of Ayodele Ale, a reporter for “The Saturday Punch”. Ale was detained by Lagos State paramilitaries who have been recruited to defend the environment. “For a country that holds the chairmanship of the African Union, the violence against [its] journalists is all too […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested the violent beating, on 4 March 2005, of Ayodele Ale, a reporter for “The Saturday Punch”. Ale was detained by Lagos State paramilitaries who have been recruited to defend the environment.
“For a country that holds the chairmanship of the African Union, the violence against [its] journalists is all too frequent,” RSF said. “When agents of the State Security Service (SSS) are not raiding newspapers, policemen are attacking journalists in the middle of an electoral meeting. President Olusegun Obasanjo should investigate the abuse of authority by state agents. The violence against Ayodele Ale is unacceptable in a country that boasts of being a regional giant and peacemaker.”
Ale, who reports for the weekend edition of the privately-owned and high circulation daily “The Punch”, was detained and beaten by members of the Kick against Indiscipline (KIA) paramilitary brigade in Sabo, in the Yaba district of Lagos. He had gone to observe KIA agents detaining people who were crossing a highway without using the pedestrian bridge. As Ale was taking photos, he was surrounded by KIA members who grabbed him and dragged him to the Customary Court in the Akerele district of Surulere, Lagos.
According to Ale, one of the KIA members, known as Lefo, started to break his camera. When the journalist told him to stop, Lefo got angry and called in several colleagues, who beat Ale with sticks and threw him, injured, in a cell with other detainees. He was released several hours later, after notifying his newspaper.
“The Saturday Punch” carried a report the next day about Ale’s arrest and beating, with photos of his injuries. The KIA acknowledged the incident but said Ale was beaten by an individual called Rotimi, who did not belong to their brigade.
Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment Tunji Bello said Lagos launched the KIA programme with the support of the armed forces at the end of 2003, with the aim of “restoring the city’s environmental cleanliness and lost glory.” Specific goals of the clean up campaign included banning unlicensed street vendors, demolishing illegal structures, cracking down on environmental abuses and cleaning up the streets of one of Africa’s most populous cities. Since the start of the programme, KIA members have repeatedly been accused of corruption.
