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Veteran Journalist Recounts Surviving Sanni Abacha”s Bullets During June 12 Crisis
By Samuel Sunday
A veteran Nigerian journalist, Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji, has narrated how he narrowly escaped death after a brutal attack by soldiers during the June 12 political crisis, describing the incident as one of the most dangerous moments of his journalism career.
Kayode-Adedeji, the founder of Penpushing Media, said the attack occurred at the height of the political tension that followed the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election in Nigeria.
He explained that journalists at the time were actively reporting on the actions and excesses of the military regime, a development that angered many soldiers.
According to him, the soldiers violently assaulted him at Ijaiye/Ago-Ijesa junction in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital, because they believed journalists were exposing information the military authorities wanted hidden from the public. The attack, he said, left him severely beaten and close to death.
‘I was holding a baby food I just bought for my baby and going home to drop it, with the aim to thereafter return to office, but I was suddenly stopped by the soldiers who asked me to identify myself and I told them I am a journalist and subsequently showed them my identity’
‘Showing them my identity card was like putting petrol on fire, before I knew anything, descended on me with gun butts rained on my head”, he recalled
Kayode-Adedeji explained that he survived the ordeal only by pretending to be dead after the soldiers had beaten him and left him lying on the ground. Believing he had died, the soldiers abandoned the scene, allowing him to escape what could have been a fatal encounter.
“As I was been brutally dealt with and neighbourhood watching helplessly an instinct told me to pretend as if I was dead, and fell on ground and pretentended as if I was dead, I heard the soldiers saying this one is dead, let’s go”
He said it was after the soldiers left that some residents within the area had the courage to move closer to him and assisted him to the Ogun State General hospital, Sokenu in the town for medical attention
Reflecting on the incident, the veteran journalist said the experience revealed the level of danger journalists sometimes face while carrying out their professional duty,noting that during periods of political crisis, reporters often become targets simply because they are committed to telling the truth.
Despite the life-threatening experience, Kayode-Adedeji, who today is a member of Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and International Press Institute (IPI) said the attack did not discourage him from continuing his career in journalism. Instead, he said it strengthened his resolve to remain committed to the profession and to continue reporting issues that affect society.
The award winning journalist, who is a Media partner for Lead Women of Africa (LWA), a notable Non Governmental Organisation with head headquarters in South Africa, and whose organisation, Penpushing Media is Media partner to United Nations Information Centre(UNIC), emphasized that journalism requires courage, persistence, and a strong belief in the public’s right to know.
The renowned journalist added that even in difficult situations, journalists must remain dedicated to their responsibility of informing the public accurately and fearlessly.
The founder of Penpushing Media, owner of online newspaper and television, which is the first to start operations in Abeokuta town where journalism started in Nigeria, said what gladdens his heart is that, the baby he bought the food for, before he narrowly escaped General Sanni Abacha bullets, is today over 30 years, a university graduate with two master degrees and happily married, and has equally turned him to a grand father, having been blessed with her own child.