Abuja, Nigeria, March 10, 2016 – Nigerian authorities should immediately<\/p>\n
release magazine publisher Yomi Olomofe on bail, the Committee to Protect
\nJournalists said today. Police detained Olomofe early this evening in
\nLagos, after men he had accused of severely beating him in June 2015
\nalleged the publisher had assaulted and attempted to extort money from
\nthem, Olomofe and his lawyer told CPJ by telephone.
\nOn June 25, 2015, Olomofe, who publishes the monthly community magazine
\nPrime Magazine, and McDominic Nkpemenyie, a correspondent with the
\nstate-funded Tide Newspaper, were investigatingallegations that customs
\nofficers at Seme, on Nigeria’s border with Benin, were complicit in
\nsmuggling, when more than 15 men attacked the two journalists, Olomofe
\ntold CPJ. The men hit Olomofe on his face and body with their fists and
\nsticks until he lost consciousness, the publisher and witnesses told CPJ
\ndays later, after Olomofe regained consciousness.
\nIn a June 30, 2015, complaint to the Lagos state police commissioner, and
\na July 1, 2015, complaint to the inspector general of police, Olomofe
\nidentified his attackers and customs officers who had not intervened to
\nstop the attack. Police have not charged anyone for assaulting the
\njournalists, Olomofe and his lawyer, Akin Osunsusi, told CPJ.
\nIn an October 2015 complaint to the police, the men Olomofe had accused of
\nbeating him themselves alleged that he had assaulted them and had
\nattempted to extort money from them, the publisher told CPJ. He denied the
\naccusations, and he and his lawyer said the first they had heard of them
\nwas today, after his arrest. It was unclear whether the publisher was
\nformally charged with a crime.
\n“Arresting magazine publisher Yomi Olomofe for beating the men he says
\nbeat him to a pulp is nothing short of obscene,” Peter Nkanga, CPJ’s West
\nAfrica representative, said. “Rather than blaming the messenger, police
\nshould energetically pursue those responsible for the crime.”
\nA police officer at the Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department
\n(SCID), who gave his name only as Aminu, contacted by CPJ on March 8 in
\nthe course of follow-up research into the initial incident, said that he
\nhad repeatedly invited the customs officers for questioning about the June
\n2015 beating, but that they had not come, despite his having copied the
\nhead office of the customs service in Abuja. “Being service officers,” he
\nsaid, “I cannot just arrest them.”
\nOne of the customs officers who Olomofe said had not intervened to stop
\nthe 2015 attack told CPJ at the time that there was nothing he could do:
\nThe assailants were too “rowdy.”
\nPolice at the SCID today told CPJ that they had been instructed to pass
\nOlomofe’s file to the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) in
\nAlagbon, in Lagos state, where Olomofe is held. Dolapo Badmus, the Lagos
\nState police spokeswoman told CPJ that police authorities in Abuja have
\njurisdiction over FCID and not the Lagos State Police Command. CPJ could
\nnot immediately reach the FCID spokesman for comment.
\nDeji Elumoye, the chairman of the Lagos state chapter of the Nigeria Union
\nof Journalists, told CPJ that police in Alagbon had refused to grant
\nOlomofe bail today, and that representatives of the union had not been
\nallowed to see him in custody.
\nOlomofe and the Lagos state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in
\nJanuary 2016 filed a civil lawsuit against the attackers and the customs
\nservice seeking compensation for the attack, according to press reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Abuja, Nigeria, March 10, 2016 – Nigerian authorities should immediately release magazine publisher Yomi Olomofe on bail, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police detained Olomofe early this evening…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n