Abuja, Nigeria, September 29, 2016 — Nigerian authorities should
\nimmediately release at least 11 journalists, bloggers, and media support
\nstaff detained in recent days across the country and stop harassing the
\nmedia, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.<\/p>\n
“The impunity with which Nigerian security forces have recently attacked
\nthe press is reminiscent of Nigeria’s darkest days of military rule,” said
\nCPJ West Africa Representative Peter Nkanga. “We call on President
\nMuhammadu Buhari’s administration to reverse this alarming slide and let
\njournalists do their jobs without fear of reprisal.”<\/p>\n
At around 1:45 a.m.<\/span><\/span> on September 21, military soldiers and officers of Watchdog Media reported that the journalists were “brutalised,” and were According to press reports, army spokesman Col. Sani Usman said in a He said the journalists were arrested in possession of incriminating, “All the suspects were treated humanely and in the most dignified manner,” Watchdog Media subsequently published pictures of the crew conducting Garrick told CPJ that the SSS is targeting his newspaper because of The crew returned to the state on September 20 to cover the Edo North and The 10 journalists and media workers have not yet been arraigned.<\/p>\n “The Edo State government wants to stop us from reporting the elections According to press reports, those arrested include: production manager At a press conference in the city of Benin yesterday, the head of the Edo Asked about the NUJ’s statement, three journalists at Watchdog In a separate event, police from the northern Nigerian state of Katsina on Katsina Police Commissioner Usman Abdullahi said that Mabai was arrested Abdu Labaran, Masari’s spokesman, denied that the state reported the A magistrate court on September 22 said it had no jurisdiction in the case In a second session today, the magistrate insisted on remanding Mabai to Bloggers Bashir Dauda and Umar Faruq were detained on September 19 and Abuja, Nigeria, September 29, 2016 — Nigerian authorities should immediately release at least 11 journalists, bloggers, and media support staff detained in recent days across the country and stop harassing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nNigeria’s special police, the State Security Service, arrested 10
\njournalists and media workers from the independent news website Watchdog
\nMedia News at the Douban Hotel in Benin, the capital of the southern
\nNigerian state of Edo, their employer reported. The crew was in the city
\nto cover gubernatorial elections scheduled to take place today, according
\nto news reports.<\/p>\n
\narrested wearing only their underwear. Taiye Garrick, the editor of
\nWatchdog Media, told CPJ that witnesses said the crew were beaten with
\nbarbed wire and had cold water poured on their bodies before they were
\narrested. The elections were initially scheduled for September 10, but
\nwere postponed based on fears that “hoodlums” were planning to disrupt
\nvoting, according to press reports.<\/p>\n
\nSeptember 22 statement that the army acted on “credible security reports”
\nthat hired “hoodlums” were in the hotel preparing to attack the state.<\/p>\n
\nsensitive election material, without elaborating, and that they had not
\nidentified themselves as journalists.<\/p>\n
\nhe said, according to the Premium Times.<\/p>\n
\ninterviews on the streets of Benin while wearing their press credentials.<\/p>\n
\nmaterial the staff collected while covering the Edo South senatorial
\ndistrict before the elections, which were initially scheduled for
\nSeptember 10, but postponed over security concerns.<\/p>\n
\nEdo Central senatorial districts ahead of the September 28 elections.
\nGarrick said he refused an SSS invitation to visit its office in Edo
\nState, where his crew has been held without access to family or a lawyer,
\nbecause he feared arrest himself, according to news reports.<\/p>\n
\nbecause, sincerely, the facts we were getting from the opinion polls we
\nwere running from our call centre and ‘vox-pop’ interviews with people on
\nthe streets were really damaging against them,” Garrick said.<\/p>\n
\nTony Abulu; reporters Richard Hasley, Opara Uche, and Handy Romeo Eze;
\nvideo editor Kelvin Toryila; information technology specialists Lanre
\nOgunleye, Balogun Ehigie, and Kenneth Danpome; a logistics manager
\nidentified only as Mathew; and driver Joe Epi.<\/p>\n
\nState branch of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Roland Osakwe, said the
\nunion was “seriously embarrassed” to discover the detained men were not
\njournalists, and “disclaimed” them on behalf of the union “as a way of
\nsending a clear message to those who find it most convenient to
\nimpersonate members of the pen profession for pecuniary gains.”<\/p>\n
\nMedia’sAbuja office and Garrick, the website’s editor, today told CPJ that
\nthose detained were their colleagues. Garrick said he was planning on
\nbringing a defamation suit regarding Osakwe’s comments on behalf of the
\nNUJ.<\/p>\n
\nSeptember 19 arrested Jamil Mabai — the publisher of Cliqq Magazine and a
\ncolumnist with Katsina Reporters – in the neighboring state of Kaduna
\nafter Mabai on September 6 took to social media to criticize Aminu Masari,
\nthe governor of Katsina State, over the government’s distribution of 3,000
\ncoffins to mosques while it was unable to pay civil servants their
\nsalaries, according to news reports.<\/p>\n
\nfollowing the state government’s complaint over his tweets, according to
\nnews reports. Abdullahi justified Mabai’s arrest by saying “We had to
\ninvite him to assist the police.”<\/p>\n
\nblogger to the police, the reports said.<\/p>\n
\nand remanded Mabai to prison pending a trial before another court. Peter
\nIsrael, Mabai’s lawyer, told CPJ that police charged Mabai with inciting
\ndisaffection against the government.<\/p>\n
\nprison custody until the prosecution could apply to try the case before a
\ncompetent higher court, Israel said. Mabai remains in state custody.<\/p>\n
\narraigned September 22 on charges of abetment for writing about Mabai’s
\nstory with the “intent to cause civil disturbance” and “to expose governor
\nMasari to public ridicule,” news reports said . Israel told CPJ that the
\ntwo were released, pending trial, on September 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"