NSCDC personnel beat journalist over coverage of students protest in Osun

Men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps on Tuesday harassed journalists and beat up a correspondent of The Nation newspaper, Mr Toba Adedeji, while he was covering a protest by students at the NSCDC headquarters in Osogbo, the state capital.

One of the overzealous NSCDC personnel accosted Adedeji at the scene and started querying him, despite the fact that the reporter identified himself as the correspondent of The Nation newspaper.

But this did not stop the NSCDC personnel from beating the journalist as he claimed that Adedeji was rude to a senior officer. The NSCDC personnel were joined by his colleagues as they harassed the journalist.

While other journalists were trying to rescue Adedeji from the NSCDC men, one of the civil defence personnel threatened to shoot the journalist and waste them.

Adedeji narrates his ordeal “I was standing under the shade at the entrance of the NSCDC command working on my phone while protest by the students was ongoing. One of the officers accused me of spying for the police.

“I told him that I am not a police spy but a journalist, one of them directed that they should collect my phone, I was about to show them my identity card which was in my chest pocket when one of them gave me a headbutt and struggled to collect my phone from me, other officers joined him in beating me.

“The wristwatch on my left hand was damaged during the beating. I was later rescued by my colleagues, they even threatens to shoot one of them,” he said.

(Daily Trust)