Two photojournalists with the National Mirror Newspapers, Yinka Adeparusi and Samuel Adetimehin, were Tuesday brutalised and had their cameras broken and confiscated by men of the Nigeria Police Force while trying to report the fire incident at the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Broad Street in Lagos.

Both photojournalists got to know of the fire incidents as smoke from the building billowed but on arriving at the scene to carry out their professional duty, they were molested by the security officials who ordered them to surrender their cameras at all costs, beating both severely when they refused.

Adeparusi, who is an international award winning photojournalist was later whisked away to the Area ‘A’ Police Station where he was detained before he was released.

Meanwhile, Adetimehin who was the first to be attacked was left to writhe in pain after he had received punches from the mob of policemen who made sure they all had a go at him, even after forcefully taking his camera and dismembering it.

The two photojournalists have now been placed under medical care by their employer, as they are presently suffering from the grievous bodily harm inflicted by the security agents.

However, the timely intervention of the federal, state and private fire services on Tuesday evening saved the old CBN building at Tinubu Square in Lagos from being razed down.

Head of fire prevention, Federal Fire Service in Lagos, Njoku Chika, said that the fire started at about 5.00 pm from the first floor on left wing of the five storey building which houses the administrative department of the apex bank.

“Fire services from the Federal, state, UBA, Union Bank collaborated to put out the inferno,” he said.

The CBN has assured stakeholders that the fire incident in its office in Lagos would not affect its business transaction, as it has an effective backup of all its records as part of disaster recovery infrastructure.