(IJC/IFEX) – On Wednesday 14 June 2000, a journalist with the “Guardian” newspaper, Ben Akparanta, was assaulted while performing his official duties. Akparanta, the newspaper’s police affairs correspondent, said he was physically assaulted and the sum of N10,000 (about US $98) was removed from his car when he was on his way to cross-check certain […]
(IJC/IFEX) – On Wednesday 14 June 2000, a journalist with the “Guardian” newspaper, Ben Akparanta, was assaulted while performing his official duties.
Akparanta, the newspaper’s police affairs correspondent, said he was physically assaulted and the sum of N10,000 (about US $98) was removed from his car when he was on his way to cross-check certain facts given to him by the Adegbite family in Ikeja, Lagos, for a story the family wanted “The Guardian” to cover.
In a petition he wrote to State Commissioner of Police Mike Okiro on the matter, the journalist stated that on 29 May, the Adegbite family of Community Road, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, visited the newspaper. They requested that it run a story on an American named Brad Zellner who had allegedly strangled their daughter and sister, 26 year-old Atilola Adegbite, on 27 May in Lagos.
The Adegbites provided the late woman’s photographs and other information. Consequently, Akparanta states that his editor directed him to investigate the story before publishing it.
“After visiting the police and the home of the suspected American, I visited the Adegbites to cross-check my facts which include the American’s claim to the police that Miss Adegbite collapsed and died while both of them were taking narcotics,” he stated in the petition.
According to the journalist, “The fact I presented before them made them flare up. I was thoroughly beaten and my car keys were seized. I would have been killed inside their premises if not for the fact that I took along a protocol officer of Hallmark Bank, Rich Akuata, who was in my car outside and witnessed what transpired. He was himself manhandled when the car keys were forcefully taken.”