Soldier assaults journalist over traffic dispute in Lagos

A journalist with TheCable, Olalekan Fakoyejo, has recounted how he was allegedly assaulted by a soldier following a disagreement linked to a traffic obstruction in the Ogba area of Lagos State.

Fakoyejo, who serves as Assistant Business Editor at the platform, narrated the incident in an interview on Monday, explaining that he was travelling in a tricycle from Ikeja to Ogba on Saturday when he encountered the soldiers managing traffic.

He said the situation unfolded around Pleasant Event Centre, off Ajao Road in Ikeja, where soldiers were controlling vehicular movement.

According to him, the confrontation began when a soldier stopped another tricycle rider and ordered him to disembark and climb onto the vehicle as punishment, an action he believed worsened the traffic situation.

“The soldier was trying to punish a tricycle driver on a different lane. He asked the driver to step out and climb on the roof of his tricycle. What he was doing was causing traffic, and I said this is causing traffic. I was on another tricycle on another lane, which was not far from where the other tricycle was.

“The soldier heard what I said, and he dragged me out of the tricycle. He started threatening me and ordered me to go meet his colleagues who were not close to the incident. I refused to go, telling him I did nothing wrong, and he doesn’t have the right to order me to go report myself to his colleagues.

“During the period, he kept pushing me backwards towards where he said his colleagues were, then one of his colleagues came to speak to me. 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,” he said.

A report by TheCable indicated that a video recorded by an eyewitness showed the soldier repeatedly pushing the journalist and attempting to strike him with a cudgel picked from the ground.

The report added that Fakoyejo’s phone fell during the altercation, with the screen damaged after hitting the ground.

It further stated that bystanders eventually intervened, urging the journalist to leave the area to avoid further harm.

According to the account, two other soldiers later approached Fakoyejo as he was leaving and allegedly threatened to flog him, before onlookers appealed for calm.

As of the time of filing this report, efforts to obtain a response from the Nigerian Army spokesperson, Appolonia Anele, were unsuccessful, as she had yet to respond to enquiries.