by Adeniyi Abdul

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola has condemned the attack on a Leadership Newspaper photojournalist at the mortuarty at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. Fashola yesterday apologised for the brutalisation of the journalist and ordered an investigation into the matter.

“I was horrified really,” the governor said, speaking to newsmen in Ikeja. “I didn’t hear of the incident until after the prayer when I got home and was trying to catch a piece of the news. I was really horrified at what I saw. First of all, whatever that journalist may have done there is nothing to provoke that kind of action.

“I make an unqualified apology on behalf of our government to the journalist concerned and the media houses, LEADERSHIP and Thisday newspapers. I tender a very unreserved apology. That is not us. I have since yesterday asked the chief security officer to find out the officers and the men involved. It happened on our premises somehow.” he said.

He however stated that he was uncertain as to whether or not the journalist’s assailants were workers at the mortuary or from somewhere else.

“I am still not able to tell whether they are our staff or of other organisation,” he said. “Whatever the case may be, we will conduct our investigation and we will bring those people to justice.

“It goes back to all I have been saying about law and order. Those are the small crimes; those are the broken windows. If we do not punish this kind of behaviour very severely, it will lead to bigger crimes. When you begin to assault somebody in daylight, you can imagine the kind of thing it will get up to without supervision.”

Make that one for the governor.