On October 8, 2024, several unidentified men armed with AK-47 assault rifles shot at a vehicle carrying 10 freelance journalists and media workers working for the privately owned Afrosports broadcaster, killing Kolawole Omoniyi, a camera operator, according to media reports and one of the crew members who spoke by phone with CPJ on the condition of anonymity.
Omoniyi, a former staff member of international sports broadcaster SuperSport, was traveling with the crew from Lagos to Uyo, the southern Akwa-Ibom State capital, to cover an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier match between Nigeria and Libya, and the crew was accompanied by two security officers, according to those same sources.
As they journeyed across Nigeria’s southeast, they arrived at the town of Isseke, where a checkpoint was set up by local vigilante groups known for attacking Nigerian security, the surviving crew member told CPJ.
To try to avoid a confrontation between the security officers traveling with the journalists and the local vigilantes, the driver decided to take a different turn. But when he attempted to change his route, the vigilante group, consisting mostly of youths armed with AK-47 rifles, fired at them, deflating their tires and instantly killing Omoniyi, the journalist told CPJ, adding that their attackers told them their driver and a police officer with them died later.
The journalist said that the survivors quickly fled for safety, running into the bush, while their attackers buried Omoniyi in a shallow grave and set their car ablaze.
The attackers eventually caught them and questioned them, suspecting that they were soldiers, until one of the journalists, who identified himself only as Chike, showed their captors a photo of himself and his father on his phone. The attackers recognized his father as a member of a neighboring village in southern Anambra State and saw a press pass in Chike’s bag, so they decided to release the group on the condition that they pay a ransom.
The journalist said they paid the attackers three million naira (US$1,963) and were being led out of the village when military officers arrived in search of the journalists. The officers shot sporadically in the area, causing the attackers to run away. The journalist said that they then found their way to a local bank, withdrew some money, and returned to Lagos.
Omoniyi’s son, Babajide Omoniyi, confirmed in an interview with the privately owned Foundation for Investigative Journalism that his father had travelled to cover the AFCON qualifier, and added that the journalist had reported on AFCON matches for several years.
When CPJ contacted the Akwa-Ibom state police spokesperson Timfon John for comment about investigations into the attack, she passed the phone to someone whom she described as the commissioner of police, without giving the individual’s name. That person told CPJ that they could not comment on the matter.