Holla readers and fellow bloggers, happy weekend, hope y'all having a wonderful weekend rest?. it is another edition of weekly featured content titled "crime scene" on hive learners community.
Life is full of dramatic events, which unfolds as time passes by, not every action witnessed by humans can be reported, especially in a society that care less about fundamental human rights and in most cases when a person refuses to do what is needed, when he or she experienced a crime scene such action eventually results to self inflicted Guilt.
As a Nigerian, I have experience a lot of atrocities committed by people who are in the position that is expected to do the right thing, but as the old saying goes in Nigeria, "No be everything wey your eye see you go talk" (pigin) meaning that not everything you see or experience that you are privileged to say. this is mostly said as a precaution to avoid getting hurt after reporting a crime.
This has made a lot of Nigerians to look the other way when ever they experience a crime, which has increased the rate at which crimes are committed in the society and the rate at which we have eyewitness to testify against a particular crime in court as reduced also because no one is ready to stake their neck out for crime that has nothing to do with them. this has allowed a lot of criminals roam free without the fear of being jailed or detained.
Back to the discussion of this write up, like I mentioned earlier as a Nigerian I have experienced a lot of crimes and injustice I was not privileged to report or have the capacity to do anything about it but of all the crime scenes I have experienced their is this particular one that really inflicted a lot of guilt on me because this crime scene I had the power to do something about it but despite the fact that achieved what I wanted the consequence was great.
THE CRIME SCENE I WITNESSED
This happened about 3 years ago, during my second year of industrial training. it was during the COVID 19 lock down, I was working at Lagos traffic radio at agidigbi Ikeja, I stayed at Opebi estate due to my partime job at Duncan maritime limited at Adeniyi jones, I was working on both jobs just to earn more income.
My route to work always depends on my shift at work, as you all know broadcast entity deals with time, on days when I have afternoon or evening shift, I have to pass through Allen avenue, then link to Adeniyi jones to report to Duncan maritime, once the time for my afternoon shift at Lagos traffic radio is near, I will quickly return back to Allen avenue and board a bus going to ojota, from there I will get a cab to agidigbi Ikeja, where Lagos traffic radio is located. this route can only be best understood if you live in that area.
On the day of this incident, I had an afternoon shift at Lagos traffic radio, which means I have to first get to Duncan maritime limited before heading to Lagos traffic radio in the afternoon. as usual I took a morning stroll from Opebi to Allen roundabout just to reduce the cost of transportation.
On getting there, beside the traffic light, I saw about 5 men in police uniform harassing two young men who were not putting on nose mask. As a Nigerian during the COVID 19 lock down it was instructed that everyone must wear a nose back, must have a hand sanitiser and must avoid public gatherings. this was the major trend during the COVID 19 lockdown. we have presidential task force operatives roaming about to ensure everyone adhere to this instructions.
I guess that is what those police men were trying to do, at least that is what I thought. the police men eventually asked two young men to kneel down for not putting on nose mask, which is not right, they only have the right to instruct them to go back home but in this instance the police men decided to punish the two young men publicly on the road.
The young men felt reluctant to obey the instructions of the police men, so they brought out "KOBOKO" (a cane made out of animal flesh) and start beating those young men mercilessly, to the case other men sitting in that surroundings had to get involved to safe those young men from the merciless beating by the police men.
People got involved but the police men refused to retreat and kept beating the boys, the issue escalated and turned into a riot between the police men and the people that got involved. the police men tried to use brutal force against the people but they retaliated by bring out planks and bottles to fight against the police men. I was standing beside the road but when the riot started, I ran to the nearest Ecobank close to me to seek shelter because I was interested in writing a news story about the incident.
The fight between the police men and the civilians continued and got escalated to the point that the traffic light that was in the middle of the road was destroyed and some other equipments, the police also fired some gun shot, this gun shot sounds attracted a lot of attentions, so other authorities got involved to resolve the conflict.
As soon as everywhere is calm and I was already late to go to my first job at Duncan maritime, I had no choice but to go to Lagos traffic radio for my afternoon shift. I was excited that I will be privileged to report the story since I work in the news room, I believed that is the little I can do to help those two young men who were a victim of police brutality. I got into the news room, turned on my laptop and typed the story I jotted, but things did not go as planned.
immediately I finished the story, I submitted it to the senior editor in the news room to compile it into the bulletin, I was not aware that my editor is already aware of the incident
my headline for the story was "Riot at allen avenue due to police brutality". The editor went through the story, it was ok but he decided to change the headline to "Traffic equipment vandalised by hoodlums at allen avenue".
He gave me the flash drive that contained the story and asked me to take it to the studio, I knew he was going to edit the story but I never knew he was going to reframe the headline entirely, I got curious, so I inserted the flash drive into my laptop just to satisfy my curiosity. The first thing I saw was the headline, I was so devastated. so I made a judgement call which I did not have the authority to do, I changed back the headline to what it was and took it to the studio. I'm just a sub-editor to the senior editor that action I took was beyond my authority.
I knew Lagos traffic was owned by Lagos state government, so we always avoid to say anything that will defame the authorities of Lagos state, which I believe to be unjust since we claim to practice libertarian theory of the media. I knew he was trying to enforce the In-house policy of Lagos traffic radio and ensure the story is just about traffic nothing more but I wanted the whole truth to be disseminated without gatekeeping any information
THE AFTERMATH OF MY ACTION
I got what I wanted with consequences of course, the news story was disseminated. the attention of the senior editor was called by the management and I was fetched out as the culprit, which led to a month suspension from work after few days of disciplinary committee deliberation, I didn't come back from the suspension I just left.
I focused on my second job at Duncan maritime limited as a risk management officer, I was satisfied with my action, the incident at allen avenue is one of the many incident posted on social media that aggravated the youths and led to the "Endsars protest"
My parents up till today never knew the reason I left Lagos traffic Radio because they knew I loved the job but they did not need a reason to ask, since they knew I wouldn't have left without a significant reason, everyone just turned a blind eye.
I'm not trying to sound like a patriot but I believe every citizen in country has a duty to perform to ensure stability and eradicate injustice, I guess that was my way of standing up to what I believed in.
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