Female NAN Journalist Assaulted and Called ‘Stupid Albino’ by Benin Immigration Officers

A correspondent of the News Agency Nigeria, NAN, Benin office, Joy Odigie, was on Wednesday assaulted by some officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) with one of them prejudicially calling her “you this stupid albino”.
Odigie said she had visited the Edo Command of the NIS to interview its Public Relations Officer, PRO, Ake Kenneth, on a reported burglary on offices of the command. A source had hinted the journalist that the offices attacked, included border unit, technical section and the National Identification Number (NIN).
Some hoodlums, it was learnt, had vandalised some electrical cables and equipment in the offices over the weekend and carted away some items, including money kept in a safe. The source said one of the perpetrators was apprehended by some officers on duty on Monday.

Odigie said when she got to the command, the officers who were at the reception desk, queried her mission.
According to her, “I have passed through the security men in front of the office when I heard some officers saying excuse me, excuse me. I was already on the staircase, but when I realised that I was the person being called, I came down from the staircase. I told them that I was a journalist and wanted to see the PRO, and one of them answered that he knew I was a journalist and started shouting that he wanted to search me; that I could be carrying a bomb.

“I told him that since he knew that I was a journalist, he should allow me go and see the PRO rather than embarrass me. He said that I should meet an officer to educate me. When it was becoming more embarrassing, I told him I wasn’t going to meet the officer.

“By this time, more officers came to the scene and a female officer said “oga is calling you and I asked for the name of the oga. Surprisingly, the lady replied, ‘you are disrespecting my oga; you this stupid albino’, a derogatory and discriminatory words for persons with albinism”.
She said when she told the officer she was stupid for that word, other officers reportedly descended on her and confiscated her belongings.

A visibly distraught Odigie stated further that, “One of the officers with a gun dragged me by the arm and pulled me outside the office. The umbrella I was holding fell from my hand and was collected by an officer. I left the office and put a call across to the PRO of the service, who then came to my rescue, and he asked that my umbrella be given back to me,” said Odigie, who was visibly troubled.
When contacted, the public relations officer of the command apologised, saying he had extended same to the victim of the assault.