Armed Forces Remembrance Day: Soldiers assault journalist in Ogun

Two army officers on Wednesday in Abeokuta, Ogun State assaulted the vice-chairman of the state branch of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Kunle Olayeni.
Olayeni was among journalists who had gone to cover the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration when the incident happened.
The incident happened at around 11.30am shortly after the programme at the state government secretariat.
Olayeni,who is also the state correspondent of the Leadership newspaper, had headed for his car after the programme.
He was in the company of three other colleagues from the News Agency of Nigeria, Nigerian Tribune newspaper and Alaroye newspaper.
They were going to the 35 Artillery Brigade Command at Alamala in Abeokuta where Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State had gone to round off the ceremony.
Trouble started when Olayeni tried to pull out his car, which also conveyed his three colleagues, behind an army lorry.
The occupants of a private 505 Peugeot car behind the lorry, who were soldiers and who claimed to be following the lorry, stopped Olayeni’s car and rushed out of their vehicle.
They started raining abuses and insulting Olayeni and the other reporters.
Olayeni explained to them that there was no sign of any convoy since there were many private vehicles, including theirs in the traffic.
The army officer, who got angry at Olayeni’s response, headed for the car and started hitting it with his boots and in the process dented it.
He later forced the car open and pulled Olayeni out, pushing him to the ground.
He and another army officials started punching him in the presence of other army officers, including one addressed as “captain”, with the name tag: Pedro.
The other reporters looked helpless as Olayeni started bleeding from the mouth and later rushed him out of the place to attend to him at their Iwe-Irohin centre at Oke-Ilewo.
The issue was later reported at the Ibara Police Station.
The incident was coming barely a week after a group of journalists were beaten and injured also in Abeokuta.
They were assaulted at the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress where they had gone to cover a meeting.
The governor, who expressed disappointment at the first incident, said journalists should be treated with respect.
Amosun said that he would not tolerate a situation where reporters were treated with disrespect.