Two journalists with the LeadershipNewspapers, detained by the police on Monday were released on Tuesday evening.
The Group News Editor of LeadershipNewspapers Group, Mr. Tony Amoekedo, and correspondent, Chibuzo Ukaibe, were detained alongside two others at the Force Headquarters following a story their newspaper published on a “presidential directive” to attack key opposition political parties’ leaders.
They were however asked to report at the Force Headquarters daily for further investigation.
The two had also filed a suit against the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, claiming the sum of N10m for breach of their fundamental rights.
While Executive Director, Human Capital, Mrs. Chinyere Fred-Adegbulugbe, and the Managing Editor, Mr. Chuks Ohuegbe, were released on Monday night, Amoekedo and Ukaibe were detained overnight and released on Tueday.
The released journalists could not be immediately reached for comments on their experience in detention.
In a suit filed by the Company’s counsel Ugo Udoji in the Federal High Court, Abuja, the applicants sought for enforcement of their fundamental human rights as guaranteed under Sections 34, 35 and 41 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria enforceable under Section 46 of the said constitution and articles 4, 5, 6, articles 9 (2) of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement Act).
The journalists also sought a stay against further arrest and detention by the police.
Meanwhile, the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigerian has condemned the detention of the journalists.
NPAN said in a statement on Tuesday that the act was unbecoming of the police and organs of state especially during a democratic dispensation.
The statement read in part, “We are concerned and worried because we had thought that by now, the police and other similar organs of state would have weaned themselves of the carry-over of military mentality of intimidation, harassment and arrest of journalists.
“We had thought that at this stage of our democratic evolution, agents of the state would have imbibed and thoroughly schooled themselves in the time-honoured principles of civility and recourse to the rule of law, which are core elements in any democracy.”
Also, civil rights activist, Bamidele Aturu, on Tuesday described the detention of the journalists without trial as kidnapping by the state.
Aturu, in a statement, said the continued detention of the journalists “forcibly reminds us that the use of repression is an undying habit of those who wield state power in this country”.
He condemned the act of the police requesting journalists to disclose the source of their story for them to be released.
The lawyer said, “While one is not shocked at the habitual repression, the reason for holding the journalists is unbelievable.
“I have no doubt in my mind that to ask journalists to disclose the source of their story before they are released is nothing but kidnapping by the state. It is of no moment that the ransome in this case is the disclosure of the source of their information.”
In its reaction, Media Rights Agenda, in a statement by its Programme Manager, Ayode Longe, stated that the Federal Government would gain nothing from such onslaught.
The group called on the FG to stop ‘‘its rampaging law enforcement agents as it has nothing to gain but everything to lose by projecting to the international community and its citizens an image of a lawless government which muzzles the media.’’
According to MRA, their detention is the culmination of a series of acts of harassment and intimidation launched by the police against the newspaper following the April 3 publication.
Punch Nigeria
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