Two Nigerian journalists covering the 2013 Africa Cup of
Nations (AFCON) were kicked, dragged on the ground, threatened with cocked guns
and forcibly detained for two hours by officers of the South African police in
Johannesburg on Tuesday afternoon.
Debo Oshudun, Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) for Central and Southern Africa and John Joshua Akanji, a Deputy Editor of
The Sun Newspapers were onboard a taxi on their way to cover the departure of
the AFCON winners Super Eagles when shortly after they both alighted, they were
surrounded by no less than 20 fully armed South African police officers who
threatened to shoot them after they insisted they were
Journalists.
The duo, who narrated their story to SportingLife, were
grateful to God for sparing their lives.
“I thank God we are still alive because we could have
been shot, knowing the type of (extra-) judicial killings in South Africa. I
have never been in that situation in my life. I was dragged on the floor, kicked
and brutalised. I and John Joshua-Akanji were disposed of our phones, my keys
and we couldn’t contact anybody. We were detained for two hours and I was really
traumatised throughout the time the police dealt with us and still imagining it
up till now.
“The police claimed that they stopped our car because the
taxi we were in had a number plate with two different characters. Immediately
they stopped us they removed the number plate. They lied that they had been
trailing us,” Oshundun told SportingLife in Johannesburg on Tuesday
afternoon.
Joshua-Akanji had to miss his South African Airways
flight due to the torture he received from the South African
Police.
The Sun Newspaper Deputy Editor also narrated his ordeal
to SportingLife in Johannesburg yesterday.
“I was in a trance. I thought I was acting out a movie. I
never thought it was for real. I have never seen a thing like this in all my
life. But I am happy to be alive to tell the story”, the visibly shaken
journalist disclosed. 20 policemen, who had already cocked their guns and
pointed them to my head and my colleague Oshundun’s, were shouting ‘I will shoot
you, I will shoot you. Who are you? Do you think you are special? I will blast
your brains off’”, Joshua-Akanji revealed.
Lieutenant Colonel M. F. Tshabalala station commander,
Sandringham Command South African Police Service, SAPS, later apologised for the
treatment meted out on the Nigeria Journalists.
It took the intervention of the Nigerian Consulate in
Johannesburg to secure the release of both men. There are no indications yet, if
the Journalists will press charges against the South African
Police.
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Thank God for Hope then or it would not have been pretty.
ReplyDeleteThe same South African Police shot and killed dozens of striking miners sometime ago at a South African mining location.They shot those miners as if they were making a sport of it.They have already earned a bad name for themselves.
ReplyDeleteIs there anything good that can come out from this country called South Africa where human life means nothing to them?
ReplyDeleteI think the SA police are jealous of nigerians,a nigerian from the east was brutally killed in december 2012,this must stop.we are the true king of africa.
ReplyDeleteCan't blame the police. Nigerians are known all over the world for their criminal ways.
ReplyDelete