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.
Source: Sporting Life
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon