Lagos Journalist Recounts 2010s Attack by Task Force, Links Incident to Spinal Injury
_Federal High Court ruling affirms public right to film police in 2026_ By Lod Onyeji LAGOS — A Nigerian maritime journalist says a violent encounter with the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit in the early 2010s left him with spinal injuries that have since led to paraplegia and ongoing treatment at the National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi, Lagos [NOHIL]. Obiajulu Agu, administrator of _MARITIME MATTERS_, described the incident in a recent account detailing how he was detained and beaten in Apapa after filming officers he said were extorting commercial motorcyclists along Wharf Road. The unit, commonly known as the Lagos State Taskforce, is tasked with enforcing environmental sanitation and traffic regulations. According to Agu, officers seized his phone and laptop, assaulted him for approximately 10 minutes, and held him in a “Black Maria” detention truck before transferring him to the unit’s Alausa headquarters. He said he was released after intervention from t...
