The
Coalition for Whistleblowers Protection and Press Freedom is calling on the
Federal Government to order the immediate release of Mr Jones Abiri, publisher
of the Weekly Source newspaper
in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, who was arrested by agents of the Department of
State Security (DSS) on July 21, 2016 and has been detained without charge
since then.
The
Coalition is contending that regardless of the offence with which Mr. Abiri may
subsequently be charged, there can be no justification for his detention
without trial for two years, adding that his detention without a court order is
a flagrant violation of the Constitution and an affront to the rule of law.
Quoting
news reports, the Coalition said on July 21, 2016, nine armed agents of the
State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency also
commonly known as the DSS, arrested Mr. Abiri, in front of his office in
Yenogoa, during which they searched the office and confiscated various
documents.
The
DSS subsequently emailed a statement to Nigerian journalists on July
23, 2016 accusing Mr. Abiri of being the leader of the separatist group Joint
Revolutionary Council of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force and claimed
that he had confessed to bombing oil
pipelines, planning attacks on Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, sending
threatening messages to international oil companies, as well as being the
mastermind of a hoax military coup against President Muhammadu Buhari.
These
allegations were shocking to friends and families of Mr. Abiri; they claim
repeatedly that he has no connections to militancy in the Niger Delta.
The
Coalition noted that when the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) contacted the DSS in July and November 2016, the officers who answered
the telephone calls said they were not authorized to speak about Mr. Jones
Abiri's case.
It’s
also quoted Mr. Abdulwaheed Odusile, president of the Nigeria Union of
Journalists (NUJ) as well as of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) as
telling the CPJ on October 25, 2017 that: “We don't know where he is and we
don't know what he has been charged for.”
The
Coalition said it supports a fundamental human rights enforcement suit filed
before the Federal High Court in Abuja on behalf of Mr Abiri by human rights
lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), in which he is contending that his being held in
the custody of the DSS for about two years amounts to an illegal violation of
his fundamental human rights.
The
suit, filed on July 4, 2018, is praying the court to declare that the detention
of the journalist in Abuja without access to his family members, friends and
medical doctors since his arrest on July 21, 2016 “is illegal and unconstitutional”
and claiming N200m in damages..
Mr.
Falana (SAN) is hinging his claim on the argument that the detention “violates”
the applicant’s fundamental rights” guaranteed by Sections 34, 35 and 40 of the
Constitution as well as Articles 11 and 16 of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.
The
Coalition insisted that Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, was not telling the truth when he claimed at the opening of the FAJ Congress on 29
April 2018, while delivering a speech on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari,
thus: “I can report to this congress that not a single journalist is being
detained or harassed in Nigeria today. This government is not a threat to the
media, and it is not about to stifle press freedom or deny anyone his or her
constitutionally guaranteed rights.”
It
contended that even if Mr. Abiri had committed murder or treason, of which
there is no record of such, he has a right to fair hearing and a trial.
The
Coalition said: “As an organization that has its mandate based on good
governance, anti-corruption as well as an institution that fiercely fights for
the protection of basic human rights of its citizens, whistleblowers and press
freedom, we denounce the inadequate safety for journalists in Nigeria. Journalists are imprisoned for the wrong
reasons and journalists are harassed for speaking out against certain
government policies.”
It
called on “ the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature to set up a
national mechanism for the safety of journalists and to report on the policies
of protection, prevention and justice in place to eradicate impunity for
attacks against journalists.”
The Coalition vowed to continue to champion the case
of Mr. Abiri until the right thing is done by the government, warning that “if
certain elites assume, in their disdain for accountability, that using the state security machinery to bully
the press, as in this particular case will intimidate the media from holding
the government accountable, then they are mistaken.”
Signed
-
Wole Soyinka Centre for
Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ)
-
International Press Centre
(IPC)
-
Media Rights Agenda (MRA)
-
Premium Times Centre for
Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ)
-
Premium Times
-
The Cable
-
African Centre for Media and
Information Literacy (AFRICMIL)
-
Daily Trust
-
Order Paper
-
Paradigm Initiative
-
Nigerian Union of Journalist
(NUJ)
Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA
