Morayo Afolabi-Brown shares close call during 2020 TVC attack

TV host and media personality Morayo Afolabi-Brown has shared how she and her colleagues escaped death when hoodlums attacked the old Television Continental building in Lagos during the 2020 #EndSARS protests.

Afolabi-Brown spoke about her experience on her Morayo TV show uploaded on Tuesday. She reflected on her time hosting TVC’s Your View, a morning program, after her resignation from TVC Communications.

She remembered encouraging her colleagues to speak freely about the protests during a live broadcast the day after the Lekki massacre, even with the risks involved.
“I said, guys, tomorrow might be our very last day ever to do the interview. I want you to give it your all. You say it as you feel it. You speak the pulse of the people,” she recounted.

According to her, four female presenters were supposed to be on the program, but two could not make it because they were on the Island. She and her colleague, Tope, were on the mainland and made it to the studio while the others joined online.

Afolabi-Brown said they discussed the issues around the protests until hoodlums stormed the building while the program was still live.
“And we spoke truth to power on that day, the very next morning. And it was while we were speaking that thugs came out to burn down the building. Myself, Tope, the crew, we were all in the building,” she said.

She recalled how communication with the control room suddenly stopped as the attack began. She felt confused until someone informed her that the attackers had entered the building.
“Hello, hello. Nobody was talking to me. ‘Morayo, they are in the building.’ That was the last thing I heard in my ears,” she said.

The presenter said they cut the program short while staff members looked for a way out of the studio. When they opened the door, they found that the attackers had already entered the newsroom with fire and torches.

“The moment we tried to open the door of the studio to get out, we saw they had already entered the newsroom. They were already with their torches, with the fire already,” she recounted.

She said they blocked the studio door with chairs before trying to escape through a back door, but they stopped when they saw that buses were already being set on fire outside.

Afolabi-Brown said she called the police commissioner and others for help while she and her colleagues were trapped inside. She also mentioned the desperate efforts of her colleague Tope’s husband, who initially followed police officers but later realized that his wife was still inside the building.

In her emotional account, she said her 98-year-old grandmother and mother-in-law left home and walked towards the TVC premises after hearing she was trapped.

According to her, the elderly women walked through the area where the hoodlums were setting fires, determined to find her.
“They didn’t care. Those thugs saw them, left them alone. They were chasing the other people. Allow them to walk through them towards TVC to come and find me,” she said.

Reflecting on the incident, Afolabi-Brown said it reminded her that Nigerians have a common interest in the country’s future, no matter their workplaces or backgrounds.
“Regardless of where we work, we have a stake in this thing called Nigeria. And the experience of that day or our own experience that we almost lost our lives. Myself, Tope, the crew members, staff members should not be undermined,” she said.

She described the incident as painful but was grateful that she and her colleagues survived.
“Very painful, but we thank God for life,” she added.