Nigeria - IFEX

Nigerian journalist Saint Mienpamo Onitsha freed on bail

Marianna Tzabiras — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 21:28:25 +0000

This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 2 February 2024.

The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Thursday’s release on bail of Nigerian journalist Saint Mienpamo Onitsha and calls for authorities to drop all charges against him and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalism is not criminalized.

“Saint Mienpamo Onitsha was detained for nearly four months simply for doing his job, which should never be considered a crime,” said CPJ Africa Head Angela Quintal in New York. “While we welcome Thursday’s release of Onitsha, we repeat our call for Nigerian authorities to swiftly drop all charges against him and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalists do not continue to be jailed for their reporting.”

In October 2023, police arrested Ontisha, founder of the privately owned online broadcaster NAIJA Live TV, and charged him with cyberstalking under section 24 of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act and defamation under the criminal code. The charge sheet cited a September report about tensions in the southern Niger Delta region.

On December 4, a court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, heard Onitsha’s bail application and on January 25 the court granted him bail with a condition that he provides two sureties – persons willing to take responsibility for any court decisions made if Onitsha fails to meet bail obligations – with a bond of 10 million naira (US$8,372), according to copies of the court ruling, reviewed by CPJ, and Onitsha’s lawyer, Anande Terungwa, who spoke by phone with CPJ.

The court also ordered the residence of the sureties must be verified by the court registrar and that the sureties must submit documents proving they own a landed property in Abuja, as well as their recent passport photographs, according to those same sources.

Onitsha’s next court date is March 19. If convicted, he faces a 25 million naira (US$20,930) fine and/or up to 10 years in jail on the cyberstalking charges—as well as potential imprisonment for two years for charges of defamation and the publication of defamatory matter under the Criminal Code Act, according to Terungwa and a copy of the charge sheet reviewed by CPJ.

Terungwa told CPJ that the delay between Onitsha being granted bail on January 25 and his release on February 1 was due to a prolonged verification process among officials and prosecution lawyers on the conditions of Onitsha’s bail.

Onitsha appeared in CPJ’s 2023 prison census, which documented at least 67 journalists jailed across Africa as of December 1.

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MRA is concerned by paltry budget for implementation of FOI Act

Marianna Tzabiras — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 17:05:22 +0000

This statement was originally published on mediarightsagenda.org on 29 December 2023.

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) today expressed deep concern over the poor level of funding in the Federal Government’s 2024 budget for the implementation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and FOI-related activities by public institutions, saying the situation signals the Government’s lack of commitment to make the Law effective.

In a press statement announcing the release of its 18-page report titled “A Vote Against Transparency: A Report on Allocations for Freedom of Information Implementation in 2024 Federal Budget” MRA called on the Federal Government to demonstrate an absolute commitment to the full and effective implementation of the FOI Act by allocating the appropriate resources required for this purpose.

According to MRA, its analysis of the 2024 Federal Government budget proposal showed that out of at least 1,316 Federal public institutions, only 10 made specific allocations for FOI implementation or other FOI-related activities in their proposals, describing the situation as an indication that the FOI Act is likely to experience another year of extremely poor performance in its implementation by government institutions and authorities.

It noted that the situation in the 2024 budget is only slightly better than what was recorded in the 2023 budget in which only nine Federal ministries, departments and agencies made specific allocations for FOI-related activities and implementation in their budget proposals.

The 10 public institutions with allocations for FOI-related expenditure in their 2024 budgets are: the National Directorate of Employment, Federal Ministry of Works, Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Ministry of Environment, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Nigerian Law Reform Commission, National Library of Nigeria, and the National Commission for Colleges of Education Secretariat.

The Federal Ministry of Works has the highest budgetary allocation for FOI implementation with a total of N39,280,000.00, while the Nigerian Law Reform Commission had the second highest allocation with a proposal to spend N15,634,545 on FOI-related activities.

MRA’s Communications Officer, Mr. Idowu Adewale, observed in the organization’s statement that a crucial consideration in ensuring the effectiveness of an FOI Law is making provisions in the budget for its implementation as this helps to ensure that the resources required to successfully implement the Law are made available.

He said: “Without adequate investment in the implementation of the Law in order to ensure that the government is transparent and accountable, all other allocations and expenditures for infrastructure, facilities or other development projects would be at risk and could easily be misappropriated.”

Mr. Adewale argued that, “The long-term benefits which the effective implementation of the FOI Act can bring to the country and its democratic process, include enhancing government transparency, efficiency and responsiveness; engendering greater public participation in governance, improving public trust and confidence in government, ensuring that members of the public have accurate and reliable information about how they are governed, and contributing to the emergence of a knowledge society”, adding that these are adequate justification for the investments required to make the Act effective.

He said it was curious that although the last report by Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), then Attorney-General of the Federation, which was issued on March 27, 2023, identified “inadequate or non-financial provisions to fund FOI Act activities” and a “general lack of funding for FOI activities in some public institutions” as some of the challenges impeding the effective implementation of the FOI Act, there were no concrete measures taken by the Federal Government to address the problem.

Mr. Adewale identified the absence of any specific allocation for FOI-related activities in the budget of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, as a significant concern, given the dual status of the Ministry as a public institution to which the FOI Act applies and as the body with oversight responsibility for the implementation of the Law.

Saying its funding and budgets ought to clearly reflect its dual roles and should be adequate to enable it to meet its duties and obligations with respect to each of the roles, he called on the Federal Government to provide proper guidance for public institutions on some of the considerations and steps that they need to take into account in allocating resources for FOI implementation and in ensuring that the resources are adequate.

Mr. Adewale urged the Federal Government to direct its ministries, departments and agencies to ensure that in preparing their budget proposals for subsequent fiscal years, they make provisions in the budgets to enable them carry out the full range of duties and obligations that they have under the FOI Act and also prescribe a minimum level of resources which every public institution should allocate to the implementation of the Act in order to ensure that they are fully implementing the Law and complying with its provisions.

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Nigerian police use devious method to arrest Saint Mienpamo Onitsha

Marianna Tzabiras — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 19:06:29 +0000

This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 23 October 2023.

Authorities in Nigeria should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Saint Mienpamo Onitsha, swiftly drop all charges against him, and stop criminalizing the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday.

On October 10, police officers arrested Onitsha, founder of the privately owned online broadcaster NAIJA Live TV, in the home of his friend Charles Kuboro James in the southern city of Yenagoa, Onitisha’s lawyer Anande Terungwa, and James, told CPJ.

James told CPJ that the officers arrived at his house and forced him at gunpoint to phone and summon Onitisha. The officers then forced both men into police vehicles at gunpoint and began driving towards the police station, he said. James said the officers accused him of involvement in a criminal conspiracy with Onitsha and dropped him on the roadside midway to the station.

Terungwa said the officers held Onitisha overnight at the Criminal Investigation Department office in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State, and then flew him to the capital, Abuja, where he remained in detention in the police headquarters.

On October 17, police charged Onitsha with cyberstalking under the Cybercrimes Act – for which the penalty is a 25 million naira (US$32,694) fine and/or up to 10 years in jail – as well as defamation and the publication of defamatory matter under the Criminal Code Act – for which he could be imprisoned for two years, according to Terungwa and a copy of the charge sheet reviewed by CPJ.

“Nigerian authorities should swiftly and unconditionally drop all charges against journalist Saint Mienpamo Onitsha and reform the country’s laws to ensure journalism is not criminalized,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, in New York. “The arrest of a journalist at gunpoint sends a chilling message to the press across Nigeria that they will be treated as criminals if their work displeases authorities.”

CP has repeatedly documented the use of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act to prosecute journalists for their work.

The charge sheet cited a September 8 NAIJA Live TV report alleging that there was tension in the southern Niger Delta because a man had been killed by security guards outside the offices of the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP), which was set up in 2009 to end a militant insurgency in the oil-rich region.

It said the man, Pere Ebidouwei, had gone to Abuja to submit his documents to the PAP after the government delisted some amnesty program beneficiaries, who receive a monthly stipend in exchange for laying down their arms.

Later that day, Onitsha shared a link to the article on Facebook, as well as a video showing someone pouring water over a man lying on a street, who Onitsha identified as Ebidouwei.

He also posted a letter, dated September 8, which appeared to be from solicitors working for the PAP, who said Onitsha’s article was defamatory and demanded that NAIJA Live TV publish a disclaimer and apology or face court action.

On September 9, Onitsha published another article, in which he quoted a PAP statement saying that they “decided to discipline” Ebidouwei for trying to force his way into their offices and that when he “pretended to have passed out,” they arranged for him to go to hospital where he was confirmed to be okay.

As of October 23, Onitsha had not been given a date to appear in court, Terungwa told CPJ.

Nigerian police spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi told CPJ that the officers were carrying out their duties by implementing the law and were not to blame for the charges against Onitsha. Adejobi said he was unaware of allegations that the officers aimed their guns at the two men but he would investigate.

In 2020, Nigerian authorities also charged Onitsha with cybercrimes for his reporting on COVID-19. Onitsha said the case was later withdrawn at the request of the complainant.

CPJ’s phone calls and text messages to PAP and email to the solicitor apparently acting for PAP did not receive any response.

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Two Nigerian journalists charged with cyberstalking for reporting on corruption

Marianna Tzabiras — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 21:12:45 +0000

This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 3 October 2023.

Authorities in Nigeria should swiftly drop all charges against journalists Aiyelabegan Babatunde AbdulRazaq and Oluwatoyin Luqman Bolakale and allow them to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Tuesday.On September 11, police officers detained AbdulRazaq and Bolakale, publishers of the independent news websites Just Event Online and The Satcom Mediarespectively, over their critical reporting about a local politician, according to the two journalists and their lawyer Taofiq Olateju, all of whom spoke with CPJ.

According to the charge sheet, reviewed by CPJ, the September 9 articles contained allegations of abuse of office by Jumoke Monsura Gafar, the former principal private secretary to north-central Kwara State governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who is not related to the journalist.

On September 13, the two journalists were charged with cyberstalking – punishable by up to three years in jail and a 7 million naira (US$9,024) fine – and conspiracy – which carries a penalty of up to seven years in jail – under the Cybercrimes Act, according to the two journalists, their lawyer, and the charge sheet.

On September 20, the court granted the journalists bail and set a hearing date for October 4, the journalists and their lawyer said.

AbdulRazaq and Bolakale told CPJ that officers at the police headquarters in the state capital, Ilorin, called them in for questioning about their sources on September 11 and they explained that their reports were based on a press release from a political lobby group, which they had cited. The journalists said the police asked them for a contact for the signatory of the press release, which they were unable to provide.

“Authorities in Nigeria should swiftly drop all charges against journalists Aiyelabegan Babatunde AbdulRazaq and Oluwatoyin Luqman Bolakale and allow them to work without intimidation,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, in Durban, South Africa. “Yet again we see Nigeria’s cybercrime law being abused to prosecute the press and the police intimidating journalists to reveal their sources. When will lawmakers act to ensure journalism is not criminalized?”

The Satcom Media published an article on September 18 retracting its original report and adding that “we never aimed at tarnishing the image of Ms Jumoke Gafar.” Just Event Online published the same message on its Facebook page. Just Event Online was offline at the time of publication, which AbdulRazaq said was due to a network issue unrelated to the case.

At the time of publication, The Satcom Media’s original report was still online.

The chairperson of the Association of Kwara Online Media Practitioners, Shola Salihu Taofeek, said the police also asked a third journalist, Oyewale Oyelola, managing editor of the Factual Times news website, to come to the station but he went into hiding for fear of being detained. The outlet also published an article on September 9 about Gafar, based on the same press release.

Kwara State police spokesperson Okasanmi Ajayi told CPJ that he was aware of the case but could not comment because it was before the court. CPJ’s calls and text messages to Gafar requesting comment did not receive a reply.

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Nigerian Communications Commission demands protection of data

Marianna Tzabiras — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 22:32:22 +0000

This statement was originally published on mediarightsagenda.org on 30 September 2023.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulatory authority for the telecommunications industry in Nigeria, has warned telemarketers engaged in the illicit collection of telecom subscribers’ phone numbers and other personal information through deceptive practices for commercial purposes to desist from such practices. The NCC emphasized that such actions are strictly prohibited and that anyone found culpable will be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the law.

In the statement signed by its Executive Director, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, the Commission noted that its attention has been drawn to the criminal activities of telemarketers who illegally access the telephone numbers of telecom subscribers for their commercial activities and gains.

It added that the telemarketers falsely claim that they obtain telecom consumers’ phone numbers from the NCC and that the Commission gave them access to the numbers through the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Database which, according to NCC, is not true.

The NCC stated that it is committed to upholding the principles and rules guiding the protection of privacy as a right of all consumers and users of telecommunications services and that it has not authorized any service provider or telemarketer to invade, harvest, or use subscriber data in any form or guise without the express approval of the consumer, except otherwise provided by law.

It cited Section 35 (1) of the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations, 2007; Section 9 (1) of the Nigerian Communications (Registration of Communications Subscribers) Regulations, 2022; and Section 4.2 (a) & (b) of the NCC’s Internet Code of Practice as regulations that protect telecom subscribers data.

The Commission also reminded telecom consumers to activate the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) Short Code introduced by the NCC to manage their subscription to Value Added Services with the option to stop unsolicited text messages and other telemarketing offers. This, NCC said, can be done by sending ‘STOP’ to 2442 Short Code for FULL DND.

NCC urged telecom consumers, who observe such illegal activities by telemarketers, to report such cases to the Commission by calling the NCC Toll-Free Number 622 for necessary enforcement actions.

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Horrific end for Nigerian broadcaster Hamisu Danjibga

Marianna Tzabiras — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 21:26:29 +0000

This statement was originally published on ipcng.org on 21 September 2023.

IPC’s Centre for Safety and Protection of Journalists (I-CSPJ), Lagos-Nigeria, is dismayed over the alleged gruesome killing of Hamisu Danjibga, a veteran radio reporter in Zamfara State who was found dead in a soak away pit in his house, Wednesday, September 20, 2023.

The veteran journalist before he met the sad fate, worked with the Voice of Nigeria (VON) for several years. He spent over three decades as a reporter and was declared missing three days before his corpse was found.

A report published on the Premium Times website states that, “the discovery of his corpse was a result of an unpleasant odour observed by Islamiyah children in the evening of Wednesday, who drew the attention of their teachers.”

“After breaking the soak away, the body was confirmed to be that of Danjibga by his family and some neighbours”, the report further revealed.

IPC Executive Director, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, described the circumstances of journalist Danjibga’s death as bizarre, considering that the family had raised an alarm that he was missing for three days, before his corpse was eventually found in a soak away pit in his house.

“We urge security agencies to carry out immediate and thorough investigations to unravel the mystery surrounding his death. This will go a long way to bring succour to the family and colleagues that Hamisu Danjibga left behind”, Arogundade said.

IPC condoles with the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased.

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DAAR Communications broadcasting stations taken off air

Marianna Tzabiras — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 22:12:46 +0000

This statement was originally published on rsf.org on 8 September 2023.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the illegal destruction of transmitters in Port Harcourt, the capital of southeastern Nigeria’s Rivers State, which has silenced a local radio station and TV channel, thereby restricting access to news in the region. The authorities must do whatever is necessary to ensure that the journalists at these media outlets can resume working, RSF says.

Radio Raypower FM and Africa Independent Television (AIT), which are both owned by DAAR Communications, have not been able to broadcast in Port Harcourt since 3 September, when telecommunications engineers working for the local government, accompanied by armed security agents, dismantled their transmitter mast. Bulldozers were then deployed to demolish their transmitter complex.

The land on which DAAR Communications built the transmitter complex is the subject of a dispute between the company and the Rivers State government that has been before the courts since September 2022. But no court decision has ever been issued. The Rivers State government, then led by Nyesom Wike, nonetheless issued an order with no legal basis on 20 March 2023 giving DAAR Communications 48 hours to dismantle the complex and vacate the land.

The Raypower FM and Africa Independent Television transmitter complex enabled these two media outlets to broadcast in Rivers State. Its destruction therefore constitutes a significant attack on press freedom. The employees of these two media are out of work, and the four million people who followed them are deprived of their news sources. As there was no judicial basis for the complex’s destruction, it was also illegal. The Rivers State government should have waited for a decision by the court to which the matter was referred in September 2022.

Sadibou Marong, Director of RSF’s sub-Saharan Africa bureau

The Whistler news site has pointed out that the transmitters were destroyed one week after Nyesom Wike, the former Rivers State governor who is now a federal government minister with responsibility for the federal capital, Abuja, accused AIT of falsely reporting that he said he would “fix” Abuja’s problems within six days.

Raypower FM, which has ten local branches across Nigeria, and AIT, which operates in 24 of the country’s 36 states, were reaching more than four million listeners and viewers every day in Rivers State until their transmitters were destroyed.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an AIT journalist told RSF: “The technicians are no longer working. As for the journalists, it’s very hard for them to find the motivation to continue. The only possible way to continue broadcasting would be to send the content we produce to Abuja, where the main offices of both media outlets are located.”

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Nigerian police accused of abusing their powers to silence journalists

Marianna Tzabiras — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 15:47:17 +0000

This statement was originally published on mediarightsagenda.org on 14 August 2023.

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) today called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, to put an end to the growing trend of public officials and other powerful individuals using the Police to silence and punish journalists who publish negative reports about them, saying the law enforcement agency has become a tool in the hands of such people to shield themselves from scrutiny.

In a statement issued in Lagos, MRA’s Deputy Executive Director, Mr. Ayode Longe, noted that “Section 22 of the Constitution imposes a duty on the media and also gives it the freedom to uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people and it is certainly not the function of the Police to prevent the media from performing this duty or exercising this freedom. The recurrent pattern of the Police being used to impede the media’s performance of a constitutionally mandated function constitutes an egregious abuse of Police powers.”

According to Mr. Longe, “It is even more obscene that this abuse of the powers of the Police is sometimes done in the name of the IGP’s Monitoring Unit of the Nigeria Police, thereby bringing the highest office in the Nigerian Police into disrepute.”

He said in the latest manifestation of this abuse of Police powers, the IGP’s Monitoring Unit in Abuja, in a letter signed by DCP A. A. Elleman, Head of the Unit, invited three journalists – Mr. Petrus Obi of Everyday NewsNgr, Mr. Ignatius Okpara of the African Examiner, and Mr. Clinton Umeh of Journalists 101, who are all based in Enugu, to report in Abuja today, Monday, August 14, 2023, to answer to allegations of “criminal conspiracy, cyberstalking, injurious falsehood, conduct likely to cause breach of public peace and criminal defamation with intent to incite” leveled against them by Dr. Monday Nwite Igwe, the Medical Director of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Enugu.

Mr. Longe noted that the invitation followed news stories and articles published by the journalists about happenings at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Enugu, including the closure of the hospital’s School of Post Basic Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing in Enugu, both of which Dr. Igwe exercises supervision over.

He argued that it is hard to understand how reports published by journalists in Enugu about a public institution based in Enugu has become a matter over which the journalists are being summoned to Abuja and is a priority for the IGP’s Monitoring Unit in a country plagued by thousands of violent and other serious crimes. He added that by devoting their energies and resources to chasing after journalists carrying out their constitutional functions, the Police is misusing resources that ought to be used to fight the real criminals, including terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, hired assassins, armed robbers, murderers, human traffickers, rapists, and other violent criminal and diverting such resources to aid personal vendettas.

Mr. Longe said: “Clearly, rather than give a public explanation of his actions in response to the reports published by the journalists, in the best tradition of accountability as a public officer who should be accountable to the people, or initiate civil action for defamation against the journalists to vindicate his reputation, if he believes that he has been unjustifiably maligned, Dr Igwe has chosen to enlist the services of the Police in silencing and punishing these journalists for seeking to hold him accountable and thereby avoid having to account for his actions.”

He explained that MRA’s experience from tracking and documenting such abuses of Police powers indicates that no investigation is ever conducted to verify the truth or otherwise of the stories or articles published by journalists who have been victims of this practice and that upon honouring the invitation from the Police, they are detained for days and forced to apologise to the instigators of their arrest and where they refuse to apologise, spurious charges are filed against them as part of their punishment until the instigators of their arrest are satisfied, whereupon the charges are withdrawn and they are allowed to go.

Mr. Longe also recalled that on July 27, 2023, Mr. Chinonso Uba, popularly known as NonsoNkwa, a broadcast journalist with Ozisa FM, in Owerri, Imo State, was arrested by hooded armed men believed to be operatives of the Nigeria Police acting on the orders of the State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, adding that Mr. Uba has remained in detention till date without being charged before any court in clear breach of the law which requires that suspects be charged to court within 24 hours of arrest.

MRA called on the Inspector-General of Police, the Police Service Commission, the National Human Rights Commission, and the National Assembly, in the exercise of their oversight functions, to launch an investigation into this pattern of Police abuse of their powers to silence and punish journalists and media organizations carrying out their constitutionally assigned duties and urged the entire media community in Nigeria as well as the human rights community to join efforts to put an end to this ugly development.

It offered to provide a list of journalists from different parts of the country who had been invited by the Police, including by the IGP’s Monitoring Unit in Abuja, on unfounded allegations of various crimes simply because they published stories and reports about public officials and other powerful individuals revealing different acts of wrongdoing or misconduct to back up is claim of a clear pattern of abuse of Police powers to silence and punish journalists.

MRA also called on the Federal Ministry of Health and other relevant Federal authorities to investigate the happenings at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Enugu as well as its School of Post Basic Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing.

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Demands for a thorough investigation into death of Pelumi Onifade intensify

Marianna Tzabiras — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 19:02:19 +0000

This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on 27 July 2023.

Today, July 27, 2023, marks exactly 970 days since the body of Pelumi Onifade, a 20-year-old reporter with Gboah TV, was discovered in a morgue at Ikorodu Lagos.

The discovery of his body on October 30, 2020, brought a chilling end to days of search by Onifade’s family, friends and colleagues after he was hit by a bullet from security officers who were tackling a riot in Lagos on October 24, 2020.

He was covering the #EndSARS protests for Gboah TV, an online television channel. Specifically, he was filming some criminal elements who had infiltrated the protest to plunder Covid-19 relief items stored in the Ministry of Agriculture warehouse at the Agege Local Government Area.

Unfortunately, he was shot and wounded by the Lagos State Task Force deployed to subdue the mob. If the injury was involuntarily inflicted, the task force erased any doubt about their real intentions when they carried away their victim in a vehicle, despite the fact that he was wearing a jacket showing that he was working as a reporter.

Carried away alongside several miscreants arrested in the course of the deadly crackdown, Onifade, also a level 200 university student, reportedly died in custody from the injuries he sustained and further beatings by his abductors. It took five days of search at police stations and prison facilities by Onifade’s family members and employers before they received information that his corpse was at a mortuary at Ikorodu, Lagos.

True to the dismal information, the family discovered Onifade’s body in a mortuary in Ikorodu Lagos on October 30, 2020. His family lawyer said his body had bullet wounds.

It is a sad irony that a journalist ended up being a tragic victim of police brutalities, the very phenomenon that had sparked the #EndSARS protests. Two years and nine months extending over 970 days of impunity is too much for a journalist who was covering criminality but got murdered like a criminal.

As we mark the 30-day countdown to the 1000^th day, the Media Foundation for West Africa MFWA (MFWA) and its partners, International Press Centre and Media Rights Agenda (MRA) have officially launched a 30-day social media campaign to demand justice for Pelumi Onifade, a true martyr for press freedom. The initiative is a countdown to the 1000th-day milestone.

On this dismal milestone occasion, we call on Nigerian authorities to commence investigations into the murder of journalist Pelumi and ensure the perpetrator are punished.

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Nigerian president Tinubu being encouraged to reverse rule of repression

Marianna Tzabiras — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 16:24:40 +0000

This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on 10 July 2023.

On May 29, 2023, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over from President Muhammadu Buhari as the new helmsman in Nigeria’s presidency. Even though the new president is supposed to govern largely from the same All Peoples Party manifesto, there is one area where the media and press freedom advocates hope President Bola Tinubu will diverge and positively distinguish himself from his predecessor.

In February 2015, a few months before Buhari was elected president for his first term, he mounted the podium in a room full of diplomats, politicians, and business leaders at the Chatham House in London. Expressing remorse for his high-handedness during his 20-month military dictatorship in 1983-85, Buhari said to applause that he had become “a converted democrat” who was ready to commit to the entrenchment of democratic norms if he won the election.

However, Buhari’s military rule was characterised by undemocratic norms. He clamped down on dissenting voices – intimidating, harassing and jailing critics, including music legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, whose songs criticised military dictators and corrupt politicians. Buhari also enacted decrees that punished journalists and media houses that published articles deemed as offensive to his regime. Under these decrees, several newspapers were shut down and many journalists were sentenced to jail.

During the Chatham House encounter, Buhari solemnly promised to promote the consolidation of democracy in Nigeria and guaranteed that freedom of the press would not be compromised in any way.

Sadly, Buhari’s eight-year civilian rule was not very much different from his military rule, according to democracy watchdogs. His tenure witnessed numerous attacks on freedom of the press and expression. The Buhari government blatantly refused court orders, journalists were killed and harassed, media outlets were fined and attacked for bogus infractions, Twitter – which gave a platform for many citizens to express their voices – was banned for months, and civil protesters were intimidated and killed.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) reviews here some of the instances that illustrate the clampdown on freedom of expression under the administration of the outgone president for the attention and guidance of President Tinubu.

Impunity over the killing of journalists

In a classic case that underlines the entrenched impunity for crimes against journalists, 20-year-old student journalist, Pelumi Onifade, was discovered dead a week after he was assaulted and carried away by the Lagos State Task Force. The body of Onifade, who was covering the #EndSARS protests for online medium Gboah TV on October 24, 2020, was found in a morgue in Ikorodu, Lagos. His family lawyer said his body had bullet wounds.

On January 21, 2020, Alex Ogbu, a journalist with the Regent Africa Times newspaper, was shot and killed when the police dispersed protesting Shi’ite Muslims using live bullets in Abuja. In a related circumstance, on July 22, 2019, Precious Owolabi, a reporter with Channels Television, was reportedly killed by a police bullet while he was covering a protest by members of the minority Shiite Muslims in Abuja.

On January 15, 2019, Maxwell Nashan, a journalist with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN)in Adamawa State, was found tied and muzzled in a bush with his body hacked at several places. Nashan, who had been abducted from his house the previous day, died on arrival at the hospital.

In 2017, a joint report by the MFWA and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) highlighted four cases of Nigerian journalists being killed in separate incidents with no credible inquiry into the culprits and the motives behind the attacks. The victims were Ikechukwu Onubogu, a cameraman with the Anambra Broadcasting Services, Lawrence Okojie of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in Edo State, Famous Giobaro, a desk editor with Glory FM in Bayelsa State, and freelance broadcaster, Abdul Ganiyu Lawal, in Ekiti State.

Repressive cybercrime law

There has also been longstanding concern about the use of Nigeria’s cybercrime law to repress critical journalism and civic discourse online. The law, adopted in 2015, presumably to secure online security and privacy, tackle cyber fraud and boost the country’s digital economy, has become notorious for its frequent manipulation by the authorities to silence criticism and dissent online. A poster victim of this grotesquely elastic law is Agba Jalingo, publisher of the news website CrossRiverWatch.

Jalingo was remanded in an Abuja prison on March 27, 2023, for publishing an article deemed malicious against Elizabeth Ayade, wife of the younger brother of Ben Ayade, the then-governor of Cross River State in south-south Nigeria. The journalist was said to have committed an offence punishable under Section 24(1)b of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015. He was later released on bail and the case is still in court for trial.

Luka Binniyat, a freelance journalist based in Kaduna in northwest Nigeria, has also been a victim of the cybercrime law. In November 2021, the journalist was arrested by the police and eventually imprisoned for 90 days following a report a month earlier published by US-based news site The Epoch Times. Samuel Aruwan, the then-Kaduna state commissioner for internal security and home affairs, petitioned the police to arrest Binniyat for indicting him in the report. The journalist was freed in February 2022 after the court granted him bail to the tune of one million naira (US$1,300).

Blasphemy infamy

The gruesome killing of Deborah Samuel – a second-year student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto in northwest Nigeria – on accusations of blasphemy demands a thorough probe and justice for the victim.

On April 5, 2022, an activist, Mubarak Bala, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for blasphemy. Prior to the sentence, Mubarak, who was the President of the civil society group Humanist Association of Nigeria, had been detained for two years on the same charge of blasphemy.

A Sharia court in the northern Nigerian state of Kano also sentenced a singer to death by hanging after finding him guilty of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. The court said a song composed by Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, 22, and subsequently circulated via WhatsApp in March 2020 was demeaning of the Prophet. The song praised the founder of the Tijaniya Muslim sect, Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse, to the extent that his critics said it projected the Senegale above the Prophet Muhammad. The prosecution was an act of pandering to religious fanatics who burnt down Sharif-Aminu’s family home and demanded his killing.

Much as we uphold respect for the religious sensibilities of people and their hallowed institutions and personalities, we deplore the extremist and frenzied and mob-driven reprisals that follow alleged cases of blasphemy in Nigeria.

Twitter Ban

On June 4, 2021, the Buhari government blocked access to the microblogging social media platform Twitter, claiming the platform’s activities were capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence. Curiously, the ban happened two days after the social media platform deleted a tweet by Buhari because it violated the company’s policies.

Buhari tweeted that he would deal with agitators in “the language they will understand.” The tweet’s tone sounded genocidal and caused a wave of protest on Twitter, prompting the social media platform to delete it. Analysts said the then-president’s threat sounded like what happened during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70), during which more than one million people reportedly died when secessionists from the country’s southeast region sought to create an independent Biafra nation for the Igbo ethnic people.

For deleting his tweet, the government indefinitely suspended the operations of Twitter, which had been playing a key role in the dissemination of information among Nigeria’s teeming youths and amplified the citizens’ voices. Buhari lifted the Twitter ban in January 2022 after the government said the platform had met Nigeria’s requirements for continued operation.

Court orders yet to be complied with

The Buhari government was notorious for defying court orders. Outstandingly, on March 25, 2022, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled that Section 24 of Nigeria’s Cybercrime Act, which focuses on prohibition and prevention, among other areas, was at variance with Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The court, therefore, ordered Nigeria’s government to align the repressive article 24 of the cybercrime law with the aforementioned instruments. As of the end of Buhari’s tenure, his government had yet to comply with the ruling that followed a case filed by (SERAP), a non-governmental organisation.

In an instance of non-compliance with court orders, the government has yet to honour an ECOWAS Court of Justice ruling which ordered the payment of a sum of 30 million naira (USD$39,000) to journalist Agba Jalingo as compensation for his mistreatment while in prison for his critical reports against the Cross River state government under the then-governor Ben Ayade.

Arbitrary arrest and harassment of journalists

Journalists were frequently harassed and arrested under the Buhari government.

Among the many instances was the arrest of John Adenekan, the assistant managing editor of the online newspaper Peoples Gazette in Abuja on July 22, 2022. Two other journalists, Ameedat Adeyemi and Samuel Ogbu, and two administrative personnel, Grace Oke and Justina Tayani, were also arrested. They were released several hours later after bowing to pressure from rights groups.

The journalists were arrested after their platform published a report detailing how Nigeria’s anti-graft agency recovered loot worth billions of naira from a former chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai. The ex-army chief was reported to have petitioned the police, who effected the journalists’ arrest.

Peoples Gazette’s managing editor, Samuel Ogundipe, who spoke to MFWA at the time, was not shaken by the event, narrating how the outlet had faced several attacks aimed at intimidating its journalists since its founding in September 2020.

MFWA reported how the Buhari government restricted access to the outlet’s website in January 2021 due to critical reports against the government. Also in January 2022, operatives of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) invaded the outlet’s head office in Abuja.

The raid and arrests of journalists during the Buhari government were often greeted by nationwide outrage as they brought to the memory of many Nigerians the dark era of military dictatorship when journalists were brutally harassed and media houses clamped upon.

Broadcast stations sanctioned

Similarly, MFWA reported several times that broadcast stations were sanctioned by the Buhari government for arbitrary offences like granting interviews to dissenting voices. Among frequent targets were privately-owned stations Channels TV and Arise News. Then, in August 2022, National Broadcasting Commission, the broadcasting industry regulator, revoked the licences of 52 television and radio stations for alleged indebtedness to the tune of 2.6 billion naira (US$3.4 million). The action was later undone, though, after the Federal High Court in Lagos ruled against NBC’s action.

Clampdown on protesters

In clear defiance of the Nigerian constitution giving citizens the right to assembly, security operatives under Buhari on several occasions clamped down on protesters, often hiding under the excuse that the protests constituted public disturbance.

One of the many cases was the infamous Lekki shooting that garnered worldwide outrage. The event was marked a tragedy for a nation. On the night of October 20, 2020, members of the Nigerian Army opened fire on unarmed EndSARS protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos, reportedly killing at least 12 protesters and injuring many others. World leaders, including US President Joe Biden, called on the Nigerian government to cease the “violent crackdown on protesters.”

The election that brought President Bola Tinubu to power was marred by extensive attacks on journalists covering the process. The MFWA recommends to the new Nigeria leader order an inquiry into the frenzied attacks on the media during the elections to provide appropriate redress and take measures to prevent a recurrence in the future.

We urge President Tinubu to also order an audit of the many SLAPP suits that several Nigerian journalists have been battling over the years to intervene to get them disposed of as quickly as possible.

The MFWA and its partner organisation in Nigeria, the International Press Centre as well as the Nigeria Union of Journalists affirm our commitment to working with the government of President Tinubu to promote press freedom and the safety of journalists in Nigeria.

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