Photojournalist attacked as release of DANA air crash corpses begin

Benedict Uwalaka after the assault

On Thursday, August 9, 2012, Benedict Uwalaka, a photo journalist with the Leadership Newspapers was beaten and brutalised during the coverage of the collections of the remains of the late DANA Airlines victims at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).

It is suspected that Uwalaka was assaulted by suspected morgue attendants of the hospital.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has however condemned the act describing it as ‘horrifying and unacceptable’ and vowed to bring the perpetrators to face the wrath of the law.

‘I was horrified really, I didn`t learn of the incident until after Ramadan night prayers. I was truly horrified by what I saw. I didn’t believe what I saw, I didn`t believe this happened in Lagos, whatever that journalist may have done, that is a matter of another investigation to have provoked that action’, Fashola said.

‘I make an unqualified apology on behalf of the government to the journalist and the media house he represents. I tender a very unreserved apology, this is not us’, he added