By Adesakin Adefemi
A journalist with TheCable, Olalekan Fakoyejo, was assaulted by a soldier on Saturday in Ogba, Lagos, after a traffic altercation that began with a tricycle maneuver near Pleasant Event Centre, off Ajao Road, Ikeja.
Fakoyejo, Assistant Business Editor at TheCable, said he was in a tricycle heading from Ikeja to Ogba when he encountered soldiers directing traffic. Another tricycle had tried to weave through the gridlock and was stopped by one of the soldiers.
According to him, the soldier ordered the tricycle driver to climb on the roof of his vehicle as punishment. The directive worsened the traffic on the road. “What he was doing was causing traffic, and I said this is causing traffic,” Fakoyejo said.
He was in a separate tricycle on another lane when the soldier heard his remark. The soldier then dragged him out of the tricycle, threatened him, and ordered him to report to other soldiers nearby. Fakoyejo refused, saying he had done nothing wrong and the soldier had no right to order him around.
“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,” Fakoyejo recounted. He said the soldier had been pushing him backwards toward his colleagues before the slap.
A video recorded by an eyewitness and cited by TheCable showed the soldier repeatedly shoving the journalist while attempting to hit him with a cudgel picked from the ground. During the scuffle, Fakoyejo’s phone hit the tarmac and the screen shattered.
Passers-by intervened and urged the journalist to leave the scene to avoid further assault. As he walked away, two other soldiers accosted him and allegedly threatened to whip him while bystanders pleaded for calm.
Efforts to get a response from Army spokesperson Appolonia Anele were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report. Messages sent to her line had yet to be returned.
The incident has reignited concerns over recurring cases of military personnel assaulting civilians, sometimes with fatal outcomes. On August 27, the Army faced public backlash after the death of corps member Abdulsamad Jamiu in Dei-Dei, Abuja, during a gun duel that the Army said involved fleeing suspects.
