#EndSARSMemorial: Police Release Journalist Arrested For Covering Protest In Southwest Nigeria
Sikiru was released after the intervention of the leadership of the Nigerian Union Of Journalists in Osogbo, Osun capital in Southwest Nigeria.
A correspondent of Daily Post Newspaper in Osun State, Southwest Nigeria, Sikiru Obarayese, who was arrested by police on Wednesday, Oct. 20 has been released.
HumAngle earlier reported that Sikiru was arrested while covering #EndSARSMemorial rally in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
The incident occurred five minutes after he spoke with our reporter on the highhandedness of the police in the state.
The security operatives harassed the journalist before carrying out the arrest. They thereafter, drove him to a State Magistrate Court in Osogbo for planned arraignment, accusing him of fighting with police.
The move was, however, aborted following the intervention of the Osun chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
“The Commissioner of Police ordered the police to halt the arraignment after NUJ’s intervention,” a member of the union who does not want his name on print said.
Speaking after his release, Sikiru told our correspondent that “I was physically attacked by the police and I never expected that carrying out my duty as a journalist is a crime.”
Before now, Olawale Olokode, the Commissioner of Police in the state had warned against #EndSARS memorial rally in the state.
He said in a statement issued to journalists on Tuesday that he has “given a marching order to the Area commanders, Divisional Police Officers and Tactical units to be at alert and nip in the bud any act capable of truncating the peace of the state.”
Today marks a year that the Nigerian Army deployed soldiers to the epicentre of the nationwide #EndSARS protests at Lekki Toll Gate plaza, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria where they opened fire at youths protesting against extra-judicial killings and all forms of Police brutalities.
Multiple evidence showed that the bullets fired by the soldiers killed a yet-to-be ascertained number of protesters that night.
To mark a year of the killings at the Lekki Toll Gate Plaza, #EndSARS mobilisers and supporters have agreed to protest in remembrance of those who lost their lives last year.
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