The League of Nigerian Columnists (LNC), the association of reendowed op-ed writers in Nigeria, led by Tola Adeniyi and Yakubu Mohamed, has expressed its uneasiness and condemnation of journalists in the country.
In a statement issued in Lagos by its Secretary General, Anthony Kila, the LNC observed that “the League is very uncomfortable with the spate of arrests, detention, and even abduction of journalists in the country”.
Such development, according to the LNC, “is not worthy of a democratic country and should be condemned in unequivocal terms by all.
The statement further noted that the country, with 25 years of interrupted democracy, is old enough to be free of infantile ailing typical of a growing child.
“At 25 years of democracy, the LNC expect journalists to be free to report without fear or favour, and where they err, we expect those who feel wronged should follow civil and legal processes”, the association said.
The LNC stated that it is important to remind all that a country or government that cannot guarantee the safety and freedom of the press cannot be defined as democratic, and that the onus of ensuring the safety and freedom of the media is entirely on the government of the country that wants to described as democratic.
The LNC comprises columnists whose columns are published weekly or reasonably frequently in newspapers and magazines with a full-time editor.
Members include Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, Dare Babarinsa, Martins Oloja, Sam Omatseye, Ikechukwu Amaechi, Ruben Abati.
Recall that between, 2023 and 2024, rights to freedom of expression and media freedom have been routinely violated, with security forces threatening, arresting and detaining journalists, bloggers and human rights activists just for doing their work.
Arrests and abductions of journalists in recent times often done in Gestapo manners.
The manner which they were either arrested or abducted are reminiscent of the military, which left pains and confusion in their trail for families and colleagues of victims.
No fewer than 11 journalists had been detained within this period.
In October 2023, a Bayelsa-based owner of Niaja Live TV, Saint Onitsha, was arrested for alleged cyber stalking against a government official.
He was subsequently charged with cyberstalking under Section 24 of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act and defamation under the criminal code.
Ontimenewsng.com learnt that he was arrested base on the story titled, ‘Tension in Niger Delta Region as Amnesty Office Allegedly Strangle Ex-Agitator to Stupor.’
He was released after spending four months in detention.
In the same vein, on February 22, Kasarachi Aniagolu, a journalist with Abuja-based Whistler Newspapers, was arrested by the police.
She was arrested by the anti-violence crime unit of the Nigerian Police Force, while reporting the raid on Bureau de Change, (BDC) operators in the Wuse Zone 4 area of Abuja.
Aniagolu was released after eight hours in detention Police detention, Aniagolu was released.
Also, in February the police arrested the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Informant 247 website, Adisa-Jaji Azeez and Salihu Ayatollah, for publishing reports this year and in 2023 about alleged corruption in Kwara State Polytechnic.
They were both detained after reporting to Kwara State Police headquarters, Ilorin, on the request of the police.
They were charged to court and later released on bail irrespective of police request to detain them for another 21 days.
Precious Eze,an online publisher, who was arrested on December 12, 2023, at his residence in Gbagada, Lagos, by security agents.
Those who arrested him claimed to be men of the Special Police Task Force, Abuja.
Similarly, the arrest of First News Editor, Segun Olatunji, who was taken from his Lagos residence on March 15, 2024.
Olatunji’s case, once again, demonstrated the increasing dangers journalists face in the discharge of their duties.
Olatunji was allegedly abducted by 10 armed men “two of them in military uniforms” from his home in the Iyana Odo, Abule Egba area in Lagos.
He was released on March 28 by the Defence Intelligence Agency, (DIA), following a nationwide outcry.
There was also the case of Daniel Ojukwu, a reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, FIJ, who was equally detained by security agents.
Ojukwu was abducted by the police in Lagos on May 1,2024 and released after a week and three days in detention following a protest by colleagues and human right groups at Police Headquarters in Abuja.
Ojukwu’s ordeal was occasioned by a story regarding the alleged corrupt practices by government officials.
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