Prison officials allegedly invaded the premises of the Forestry Research Institute, armed with guns, after newspaper vendors whom they were after ran there for cover.
The prison officers reportedly beat the vendors identified as Mr. Adewale Moronkeji and Kola Ola to a pulp before taking one of them to the police headquarters at Eleyele, Ibadan, where they reported him to have attempted attacking the controller.
The vendors’ sin according to sources, was that they didn’t give the officers newspapers to read free of charge.
The vendors who sell newspaper at the Forestry junction, about 1,000 metres from the entrance of the house of the controller of prisons were said to have been under pressure for some time from the prison officers over free reading of newspapers.
The driver of the controller, with bottled anger, allegedly saw the vendors at Idi‑Ishin junction, which is a distance to the entrance of the controller’s residence and ordered them to leave the place, according to Vanguard.
Moronkeji was said to have asked him if they were constituting nuisance to him.
This, according to Kola Ola, stirred up the anger of the controller’s driver who jumped down from the vehicle and started beating him.
The assault continued on Wednesday, as the prison officials again stormed the Forestry junction, where they saw Moronkeji and his friend, and once again beat them before driving them to the police station.
Contacted, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Olabisi Clet‑Ilobanafor said she was not aware of any newspaper vendor being detained in their station even though the Chairman of the Newspaper Distribution Association of Nigeria, Mr. Babatunde Abimbola and his men were said to have identified Moronkeji in one of the dark rooms in the station, eyes and legs swollen.
Irked by the inhumane treatment of their colleague, the newspaper agents yesterday stormed the Correspondents’ Chapel at Mokola in protest.
No word yet from the Prisons officials.
The prison official should be punished for using official uniform or status to cheat the poor masses. He should even pay the vendor for the loss and embarrassement.