Lagos, Nigeria, June 28, 2016 – There was a mild drama at the Ikeja High Court today after justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye convicted Femi Adebowale to death by hanging for armed robbery.
The mild drama occurred near the motor park adjacent Skye Bank within the court premises. As the convict was being led away, some journalists who covered the proceedings attempted to shoot the photograph of the convict.
The prison warder, Mr. A.A. Teriba, in an attempt to prevent the convict from being photographed left the convict unguarded and pounced on Adebisi Onanuga of The Nation Newspaper , rough-handled and punched him on the chest and ordered him to hand over the Black Berry phone he was using to take the photograph.
In the scuffle that ensued, the warder tore his shirt and rough handled him.
When Onanuga passed the phone to a colleague, Gbenga Adewoye of the AIT/RayPower, Teriba turned his attention to him and punched him again on the chest in an attempt to forcibly take the phone from him.
The incident attracted various officers of the court, lawyers and security officers.
All efforts by those who intervened to settle the matter were rebuffed by Teriba who boasted that he was ready to take the matter up to Abuja.
It finally took the intervention of the Director, Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mrs. Idowu Alakija before the situation was brought under control.
It would be recalled that a prison warder two weeks ago assaulted Wahab Akinlade of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) when he took the photograph of Bale of Temidire village in Alagbado, Alhaji Nojeen Abioye who was standing trial for alleged murder and manslaughter.
The matter attracted the attention of Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo who chided the prison official and told him there was nothing offensive in the photograph.
Also last month, a prison warder attacked the cameramen of Silverbird Television and Mr. Jesukri Imoni , an independent journalist for taking the photograph of two engineers of Synagogue Church, Akin. Fatiregun and Oladele Ogundeji when they were remanded in KiriKiri prison pending approval of bail application by the court.
