Posted January 18, 2005
Segun Jacob Olatunji, Nigerian Tribune
Yomi Odunuga, Punch
Ibrahim Samaila, Punch
Francis Ojo, Daily Champion
Kennedy Egbonodje, Daily Trust
Akin Osimolade, Tell
Sunday Adah, Tell
Gbenga Abiodun, Daily Independent
Abayomi Fayese, The Guardian
Monday Emoni, The Comet
Innocent Okafor, ThisDay
George Edemevughe, Channels Television
ATTACKED, HARASSED
Police acting as security at a meeting of the National Executive Council of Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) in the capital, Abuja, assaulted at least 10 journalists covering the meeting. According to local news reports, police attacked the journalists with batons and gun butts when they moved forward to photograph Chris Ngige, the embattled governor of southern Anambra State.
Olatunji, a reporter for the private daily Nigerian Tribune, was beaten unconscious, and had to be hospitalized following the attack. Other targeted journalists included Odunuga, Abuja bureau chief of the private daily Punch; Samaila, a photographer for Punch; Ojo, a photographer for the private Daily Champion; Egbonodje, of the private Daily Trust; Osimolade and Adah, of the private weekly magazine Tell; Abiodun, a photographer for the private Daily Independent; Fayese, a photographer for the private daily Guardian; and Emoni, a photographer for the private daily Comet.
Several of the journalists' cameras were damaged, including those belonging to Okafor, a photographer working for the private daily ThisDay, and Edemevughe, a cameraman for the privately-owned Channels Television, according to the Lagos-based press freedom organization Media Rights Agenda (MRA).
Police Commissioner Lawrence Alobi, who oversaw police security at the PDP meeting, said that the journalists' movements had threatened security at the event, The Guardian reported. Police claimed they acted on the orders of PDP officials, MRA reported.
Police spokesman Chis Olakpe apologized for the attacks and said that they would be thoroughly investigated, local newspapers reported. The Nigerian Union of Journalists threatened legal action against those responsible for the attacks.
The PDP meeting was called in response to ongoing insecurity in Anambra State caused by fighting between supporters of Gov. Ngige and his rival and former mentor, businessman Chris Uba. Both are PDP members but were suspended from the party during the January meeting. During violent riots in November that were sparked by the feud, armed vandals ransacked and set fire to broadcasters operated by the state-run Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS).
JANUARY 20, 2005
Posted February 7, 2005
Eastern Pilot
CENSORED
State Security Service (SSS) agents raided newsstands and harassed vendors selling copies of the local tabloid Eastern Pilot in the southeastern city of Enugu. The SSS also detained and questioned Clement Egbuche, the Enugu chairman of the Newspapers Vendors' Association of Nigeria, and searched his office, according to the Lagos-based press freedom organization Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and local news reports.
The SSS raid targeted Eastern Pilot because it included reports about the Movement for the Advancement of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) alleging the "emergence of a new Biafra nation," according to local sources. Local media outlets and the MRA reported that an SSS official confirmed the incident and said Eastern Pilot was "subversive."
MASSOB, an organization based in eastern Nigeria, claims an independent state in the area for members of Nigeria's Igbo ethnic group. In 1967, three eastern states attempted to secede as the Republic of Biafra, with Enugu as its capital, sparking a bloody three-year civil war.
In September 2004, SSS agents arrested Isaac Umunna, an editorial consultant to the small, private, Lagos-based weekly Global Star and detained him for eight days after the paper published stories on MASSOB.
MAY 2, 2005
Updated: May 26, 2005
Omo-Ojo Orobosa, Midwest Herald
LEGAL ACTION, IMPRISONED
Omo-Ojo Orobosa, publisher of the weekly Midwest Herald, was imprisoned for more than two weeks and accused of sedition after his publication accused First Lady Stella Obasanjo of corruption. His lawyer, Festus Keyamo, told CPJ that Orobosa was arrested at the newspaper's Lagos office and taken to the capital, Abuja. The lawyer said he rushed to the scene of the arrest and confronted police, who said they were acting on the first lady's orders.
An article last week headlined “Greedy Stella” alleged that the first lady was involved in selling government houses to her relatives at below-market prices, Keyamo said. Two other people involved in circulating and advertising the Midwest Herald were also detained, Keyamo said. The Midwest Herald circulates mainly in southern Nigerian states that include the first lady's home region.
Orobosa was released from detention on May 20. Keyamo told Agence France-Presse that his release was unconditional.
JUNE 20, 2005
Posted: June 30, 2005
Nigerian Union of Journalists
Segun Omolehin, Nigerian Union of Journalists
Wole Ayodele, Vanguard
Isiaka Oyibo, The Daily Times
HARASSED
Police officers in Nigeria's central Kogi State occupied the local chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), harassed local journalists, and detained the local union chairman, according to local journalists and the Lagos-based press freedom group Media Rights Agenda.
Police raided the NUJ's offices in the state capital, Lokoja, demanding to see Wole Ayodele, a correspondent for the independent national daily Vanguard, and Isiaka Oyibo, a reporter for the independent national daily Daily Times, CPJ sources said. The papers had published stories alleging that armed bandits had attacked and humiliated the local police commissioner.
The next day, police arrested Segun Omolehin, chairman of the Kogi State branch of the NUJ, and detained him overnight before releasing him without charge. Omolehin told CPJ he was beaten by other inmates on the orders of police officers. Ayodele and Oyibo went into hiding for fear of arrest or violent retribution, according to CPJ sources.
JUNE 30, 2005
Posted: July 7, 2005
Haruna Acheneje, The Punch
HARASSED
State Security Service (SSS) agents arrested Acheneje, a correspondent in Nigeria's southern Akwa Ibom State for the independent daily The Punch, at his office. The agents detained and questioned Acheneje for about eight hours before releasing him without charge.
While no public explanation was given for the arrest, local sources told CPJ that the SSS action was in retaliation for an article published in The Punch about the recently impeached deputy governor of Akwa Ibom, Chris Ekpeyong. Acheneje was asked to reveal the newspaper's sources for the article, these sources said.
Acheneje has been targeted in the past by Akwa Ibom authorities and government security forces. In 2003, the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly attempted to expel Acheneje from the state in response to an article headlined, "Lawmakers protest non-payment of allowances."
AUGUST 19, 2005
Posted September 8, 2005
The Exclusive
ATTACKED
State Security Service (SSS) agents raided the offices of the Lagos-based weekly The Exclusive and confiscated over 200 copies of its latest edition. They also detained and harassed vendors of the newspaper, local sources said.
The Exclusive's editor, Osa Irabor, told CPJ that the authorities wanted to censor coverage of ethnic Igbo nationalist groups, and threats by Igbos to secede from Nigeria. In a July 27 article the newspaper reported threats by the head of the Igbo Youth Congress to take up arms if Igbos were not adequately represented in the 2007 presidential election. Two articles on August 16 reported on Igbo secession movements, including the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), which claims an independent Igbo state in southeastern Nigeria.
In 1967, three southeastern states attempted unsuccessfully to secede as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a bloody three-year civil war.
SSS agents threatened to arrest staff if the newspaper ran further articles unfavorable to the government, according to Irabor. Agents also confiscated copies of The Exclusive from newsstands, and told vendors not to carry it. Several vendors were detained for several hours before being released without charge.
CPJ has documented a pattern of SSS suppression of publications reporting on MASSOB. In January, SSS agents in the southeastern city of Enugu raided newsstands and harassed vendors selling copies of the local tabloid Eastern Pilot, which carried a story on MASSOB claiming the "emergence of a new Biafra nation." In September 2004, the SSS arrested Isaac Umunna, a well-known journalist and editorial consultant to the small Lagos-based weekly Global Star, and detained him for eight days after the paper published stories on MASSOB.
OCTOBER 11, 2005
Posted October 17, 2005
Owei Kobina Sikpi, Weekly Star
IMPRISONED
Sikpi, publisher of the tabloid Weekly Star, was arrested by Nigeria's State Security Service (SSS) in the southern city of Port Harcourt, and held without charge, the paper's editor, Obinna Ahiaidu told CPJ. He said the arrest was over an article that accused a local official of money laundering.
Sikpi was arrested along with four printing press staff as the Weekly Star was going to press, according to Ahiaidu. The four were released the same day but Sikpi was held at the SSS office in Port Harcourt. Ahiaidu said he had not been allowed to see him.
Reuters news agency and the Lagos-based Vanguard newspaper quoted the local police commissioner as saying he was not aware of the arrest.
OCTOBER 24, 2005
Posted: December 8, 2005
African Independent Television
RayPower FM
CENSORED
Nigerian authorities ordered the country's leading independent broadcast network off the air, in part because the network's reports on the October 22 Bellview Airlines crash included details that had not been officially released. Daar Communications group's African Independent Television (AIT) and its radio network, RayPower FM, complied with the order but were back on the air by early evening following negotiations with the government, sources told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The National Broadcasting Commission, an official regulatory body, accused the network of violating journalistic ethics by reporting, among other things, that the crash left no survivors before the government had officially confirmed the toll.
In a statement, the commission accused AIT of showing "gross unprofessional conduct" in broadcasting "close-up shots of decapitated body parts" and said that AIT and RayPower had ignored official requests "to handle the sad development with restraint," according to The Associated Press and the Lagos-based press freedom advocacy group Media Rights Agenda (MRA).
According to local sources, AIT and RayPower were the first Nigerian media to report the correct location of the crash, in the village of Lissa not far from Lagos. Until then, Nigerian officials and the state-owned broadcaster had incorrectly reported that the plane had crashed in a remote rural area in northern Nigeria, local sources said.
Information Minister Frank Nweke confirmed on October 24 that all 117 passengers aboard the plane had died in the crash.
At a press conference in the capital, Abuja, Nweke told journalists that the commission had acted against RayPower and AIT without clearance from the Information Ministry, and that the ministry opposed any censorship of the broadcasters, according to a source.
NOVEMBER 30, 2005
Posted January 4, 2006
Glory FM, Bayelsa Broadcasting Corporation
CENSORED
Security forces under the authority of the federal government stormed and sealed off Glory FM, a radio station owned by the Bayelsa state government in its capital, Yenagoa. Broadcasts were immediately cut, according to news reports and the Lagos-based press freedom group Media Rights Agenda (MRA).
The station's closure was part of the federal government's attempts to oust Bayelsa Gov. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and isolate him from his supporters, MRA reported. Alamieyeseigha embarrassed Nigerian authorities when he jumped bail in London, where he was due to stand trial for alleged money laundering, and returned in disguise to his home district. Along with shutting down the radio station, the federal government sent as many as 1,000 troops to Yenagoa, while police raided the state government's headquarters, according to Reuters.
According to MRA and other sources, Glory FM had been broadcasting reports in favor of the state governor, while the federal-controlled Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) carried reports critical of the governor. According to Reuters, the NTA incorrectly reported that state legislators had voted to impeach Alamieyeseigha, while Glory FM correctly reported that the initiative fell one vote short. Police arrested Alamieyeseigha on December 9.
MRA reported that after the closure, "the NTA continues to broadcast undisturbed and although it is now the only broadcast outlet operating in the state, it carries only news and views supportive of the federal government's position in the dispute."
DECEMBER 23, 2005
Updated: January 19, 2006
Klem Ofuokwu, Rhythm 93.7 FM
Cleopatra Taiwo, Rhythm 93.7 FM
IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
On January 3, two radio journalists were released from prison after paying bail in the southern city of Port Harcourt. Ofuokwu and Taiwo, both of whom work for the private radio station Rhythm 93.7 FM, were jailed on December 23, 2005 over a report aired by their station that a local bridge had collapsed.
Both journalists face trial on charges of false information and threatening state security.
For more information on this case, see CPJ's alert: http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Nigeria23dec05na.html