Michael AndeyinSecurity agencies have been targeting journalists, pressure groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Nigeria for daring to ask critical questions about governance and demanding accountability from public officials.
Worthy of note is the fact that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has witnessed an alarming jump in the arrests, harassment and intimidation of these groups, particularly by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Department of State Service (DSS) and military.
Between May 2023 and September 2024, FIJ found multiple instances where demanding better from public officials has put journalists, activists, NGOs and civil society organisations (CSOs) in trouble with security officials.
SERAP: SEPTEMBER 9, 2024
On Monday, DSS operatives arrived at the Abuja office of the Socio-Economic Rights Accountability Project (SERAP) in a bid to arrest its directors.
SERAP is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation that uses human rights law to advocate for government accountability on the issues of corruption, poverty, inequality and discrimination.
The DSS’ visit to SERAP’s office occurred just a day after the NGO urged President Tinubu to use his “leadership position and good offices to direct the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to immediately reverse the apparently illegal and unconstitutional increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, across its retail outlets”.
SERAP
READ ALSO: DETAILS: DSS Operatives Name SERAP Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare as Target
NLC: SEPTEMBER 9, 2024
The DSS also detained Joe Ajaero, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja on Monday.
Apart from serving as a group committed to protecting and promoting the rights and interests of workers, pensioners and trade unions in Nigeria, the NLC also seeks a just, democratic and transparent nation. The pressure group is well-known for its constant protests against unfavourable and anti-people government policies.
In August, the police raided the NLC headquarters in Abuja over claims that its members sponsored the #EndBadGovernance protest. The protest saw Nigerians take to the streets in several states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to express their displeasure against the soaring cost of living.
Joe Ajaero
PIDOM: AUGUST 2024
State security agents abducted Isaac Bristol, a man the National Cybercrime Centre (NCCC) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) claimed to be whistleblower PIDOM NIGERIA, in August.
FIJ later learnt that Bristol was in police custody.
The NPF-NCCC abducted Bristol from a hotel room in Rivers State on August 5, held him incommunicado in harsh conditions for six days and then transferred him to the FCID in Abuja.
Bristol remains in police custody in Abuja.
The police force is accusing Bristol of cybercrime, terrorism financing, and breach of the Official Secrets Act (OSA), among other crimes. He was brought before the Federal High Court on Tuesday. Bristol’s lawyer offered an oral bail application but the court denied him. The court ordered Bristol to be remanded in Kuje prison.
He has been in police custody for more than a month and is scheduled for another hearing on September 23.
Isaac Bristol
#ENDBADGOVERNANCE CONVENER: AUGUST
Michael Adaramoye, one of the conveners of the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests, was arrested on the orders of the National Security Agency (NSA) in August.
The nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest took place between August 1 and August 10 to kick against economic hardship and the high cost of living triggered by the current government’s policies.
Adaramoye was charged with treason alongside nine other protesters and remanded in prison by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Michael Adaramoye
KANO JOURNALIST: AUGUST 2024
Muktar Dahiru, a broadcast journalist with Pyramid FM, was arrested in August for sharing posts critical of the state government on his Facebook page.
In one of the social media contents Dahiru shared, an interviewee had accused Abba Yusuf, the governor of Kano, of corruption and requested that he allow federal anti-corruption agencies to investigate the multi-billion drug scandal in the state.
The broadcast journalist was secretly charged before Magistrate Court 24 at Gyadi Gyadi in August with criminal conspiracy, defamation of character, and intentional insult. The court remanded Dahiru at a correctional facility.
CONVERSATION AFRICA JOURNALIST: AUGUST 2024
DSS operatives arrested and detained Adejuwon Soyinka, a journalist with the Conversation Africa, as he arrived in Lagos from the United Kingdom on August 25.
The DSS claimed that Soyinka was detained for six hours because he was on an unnamed agency’s watchlist. Although the DSS released Soyinka, it withheld the journalist’s international passport.
Adejuwon Soyinka
ACTIVIST SANYAOLU JUWON: JUNE 2024
Sanyaolu Juwon, the national coordinator of the Take It Back (TIB) movement, was arrested in June.
Juwon was one of the coordinators of the 2024 Democracy Day nationwide protest. The police arrested him on June 11, the eve of the protest, and detained him for two days.
Sanyaolu Juwon
FIJ JOURNALIST OJUKWU: MAY 2024
Daniel Ojukwu, an FIJ reporter, was abducted by men of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector-General of Police on May 1. He did not regain freedom until May 10 amid demands for his release.
When Ojukwu was abducted, neither his colleagues nor family and friends knew about it until the third day after a missing person report had been filed at police stations in the area he was headed.
FIJ would later learn of his detention at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) in Panti, Lagos State. He was later accused of violating the 2015 Cybercrime Act in his investigative report on how Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Senior Special Assistant on Sustainable Development Goals (SSAP-SDGs) to former President Muhammadu Buhari, allocated N147.1 million to an account linked to Enseno Global Ventures (Enseno GV), an Abuja-based restaurant, supposedly for the construction of a classroom.
Daniel Ojukwu
READ MORE: Police Abduct FIJ Reporter Daniel Ojukwu ‘On IGP’s Orders’
SEGUN OLATUNJI OF FIRSTNEWS: MARCH 2024
Soldiers arrested Segun Olatunji, the former editor of FirstNews, from his home in Lagos on March 15 and held him in an underground military cell for two weeks.
His arrest was linked to a publication on how Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria, attempted to corner $30 billion and 66 landed properties traced to Tunde Sabiu Yusuf, a former aide to former president Muhammadu Buhari.
Segun Olatunji
SEPTEMBER 2023 OF SATCOM MEDIA, JUST EVENTS ONLINE PUBLISHERS
Police officers arrested Abdulrazaq Babatunde, the publisher of Just Events Online and Lukman Bolakale, the publisher of Satcom Media, on September 11.
The two publishers were arrested on the orders of some officials of the Kwara State Government for reporting the abuse of office by a politician.
They spent 10 days in detention before their release by a Magistrate Court.
These arrests were in addition to the harassment, intimidation and threats journalists in the country faced since May 2023.
The common denominator of these security operatives’ involvement is a public official taking offence to a report or activism demanding better performances from the government.
The post TIMELINE: Whenever Nigerians Demanded Good Governance Under Tinubu, State Security ‘Invited’ Them appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.
