Abducted editor docked in Bayelsa

Abuja Bureau Chief of a Lagos-based newspaper, Mr. Akin Orimolade, who disappeared from his base in Abuja mysteriously surfaced before a Yenagoa Magistrate Court 4 in Bayelsa State yesterday. He was accused of fabricating a report against the state Governor Timipre Sylva.

There was a twist to the case, however, as journalists led by the Chairman of the state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Siyefa Uzaka, stormed the court premises in solidarity with Orimolade, even as the court session could not hold as scheduled.

Narrating his ordeal, Orimolade said he was lured into a trap when an advert was used as bait to abduct him. He said upon realising the trick used on him, he demanded for the warrant of arrest on him but he was ignored and shipped from Abuja to Yenagoa.

Reacting to the accusation that the Bayelsa State Government forcefully and illegally kidnapped a journalist, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Doifie Ola, in an email to journalists said neither the governor nor any of his security aides had a hand in the kidnapping.

Ola said in the statement: “About 14:10 hours on Tuesday, 17 March, 2008, I saw a missed call on my mobile. It happened to be that of an Editor-in-Chief of a newspaper. I immediately returned the call only to be told that security aides attached to Governor Timipre Sylva had earlier in the day “abducted” the Abuja Bureau Chief of the newspaper. I immediately ruled out the possibility of the governor’s involvement in the alleged “abduction”, and promised to investigate the matter.

“This is what happened: On Saturday, 31 January 2009, the newspaper published a news story in which Governor Timipre Sylva was alleged to have engaged in physical combat with a certain Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) mandarin. In support of the story, the newspaper published a purported picture of the governor in boxing gloves and shorts. They never had the courtesy to tell the world that the photo was computer-generated.

“As a law-abiding citizen, the governor sought legal advice, and his lawyers were of the opinion that the said publication which was circulated all over the country, including Bayelsa State, amounts to criminal defamation punishable under Section 302 of the Criminal Code Law of Bayelsa State. On this basis, a criminal complaint on oath was filed on behalf of the governor at a Yenagoa Magistrate Court.

“The magistrate upon hearing the exparte motion issued a warrant of arrest against the reporter and two others now at large. On receiving the warrant, the Bayelsa State Police Command detailed its men to Abuja to execute the warrant on the reporter who is resident in Abuja. Upon reaching Abuja, the Policemen from Yenagoa reported themselves to the Police authorities in Abuja.

“In compliance with the rules of the court, the warrant of arrest was taken to a magistrate in Abuja who endorsed it. Thereafter, the policemen from Yenagoa in company with their colleagues in Abuja jointly executed the warrant. The reporter was then taken to the Abuja magistrate who had endorsed the warrant. The magistrate subsequently ordered that the reporter be produced before the magistrate in Yenagoa who issued the warrant of arrest.”

“Clearly, Governor Timipre Sylva is not a party to the “abduction” of any reporter. His security aides are not a party to the arrest of any reporter. No official of the Bayelsa State Government was at the scene of the arrest.”

Orimolade was still in the clothes with which he was kidnapped was brought to the court premises around 11:45 am in a Mercedes Benz 190 model accompanied by two security operatives.

He insisted he was abducted and not arrested as being alleged.

According to him, the kidnappers in uniform used advert material as bait to get at him.

“I was somewhere in Abuja when I received a phone call that I should come and pick a copy of an advert to be published in my paper.

“Not sensing any danger, I headed for the place only to discover that they only used the advert as bait to arrest me as I was surrounded by two heavily armed security operatives.

“My request for the warrant of arrest was rebuffed. I was later taken to one of the police stations in Abuja where I was told that I would soon be on my way to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. I was locked together in the same cell with hardened criminals. I did not appear before any Magistrate Court as being rumoured.”

Orimolade alongside two other persons said to be at large were alleged to have published a defamatory story against the person of Governor Sylva in the newspaper’s edition of Saturday, January 31, 2009.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the state council of the NUJ, Uzaka, has waded into the crisis, insisting that the case be settled out of court by all parties.

-Thisday