ᴄʜᴏᴏsɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴏ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪs ʀɪɢʜᴛ ᴅᴇsᴘɪᴛᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏɴsᴇǫᴜᴇɴᴄᴇs.

As a Nigerian, I have experience a lot of atrocities committed by people who are in the position 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 crimes in court as reduced also because no one is ready to stake their neck out for a 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 there was 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.

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An incident occurred about 4 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.

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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.

_{Image of Allen avenue, Ikeja, Lagos State}

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 mask, have a hand sanitiser and avoid public gatherings. This was the major trend during the COVID 19 lockdown. We had presidential task force operatives roaming about to ensure everyone adhere to this instructions.

I guess that was what those police men were trying to do, at least that was what I thought. The police men eventually asked the 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 this police men decided to punish them 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 skin) and start beating those young men mercilessly to the extent other people 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.

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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 was calm and I was already late for 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 was the little I can do to help those two young men who were a victim of police brutality and to also perform my public duty. 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 with other news for the hour bulletin, I was not aware that my editor was 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. I'm aware that news is not just about reporting fact but you have to also make sure the story is not conflict oriented.

I guess my editor decided to report the incident from a different angle but I was not buying the idea, so I made a judgement call which I did not have the authority to do so, I corrected 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. While editing the headline I could feel my heart racing, I could see flashes of my future and I knew there was no way my senior editor could predicted my action.

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 was just about traffic nothing more but I wanted the whole truth to be disseminated without gatekeeping any information.

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The Aftermath

I got what I wanted with consequences ofcourse, the news story was disseminated and immediately caught the attention of the management. My 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 was called back but I didn't come back from the suspension I just left. I really worked hard to get to sub-editor despite the qualification I had then but within me I knew if I decide to go back I will be under surveillance and I might be transferred to serve under another senior editor. Also I felt it was time for me to move on and try something new.

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 pretended like it never happened.

I'm not trying to sound like a patriot but I believe every citizen in country has a duty to perform by obeying the rules to ensure stability and eradicate injustice, I guess that was my way of standing up for what I believed in. Now that I'm thinking of it, I never knew I was capable of doing what I did. The fear I felt that day was intense because I knew it would cost me my job and in worst case scenario I could be arrested for violating company policy and sabotage but yet I did it anyway.

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_{This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Facing my fears" in hive learners community.}

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_{Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
Image 1 - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
Image 2 - Source}

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