On this day in September 2007 a Nigeria journalist Tope Abiola was beaten to stupor by prison guards and police as he photographed the bodies of some of the inmates killed by police who used live bullets to foil attempted jail break at Agodi prison.
At least eight inmates were killed and another 14 seriously injured in the riot. Mr. Tope Abiola, then deputy editor of the privately-owned Nigeria Tribune newspaper was left unconscious after a combined team of Policemen and officials of Agodi Prison in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital in South-west Nigeria descended on him while trying to cover the aftermath of a riot by inmates.
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Over 30 prison inmates were killed when guards tried to quell the riot on September 10 when many detainees tried to escape. The Oyo State Comptroller of Prisons, Maureen Omeili had said no journalists would be allowed to visit the scene of the riot as it was an internal matter that did not concern the press.
Abiola, one of many journalists who went to cover the riots at the prison, was allegedly taking photographs of the scene and counting corpses as they were being re- moved from the prison when police and guards saw him and pounced on him. They beat him until he lost consciousness.
Other journalists who tried to help him were also beaten. Abiola was later hospitalised due to injuries he sustained from the beating.
