It is dispiriting that despite the fact that we just commemorated the International World Press Freedom Day, a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, Daniel Ojukwu, is still being detained by the Nigeria Police Force which is being maintained with taxpayers’ money.
According to an FIJ report, Ojukwu who was initially held at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, in Lagos State, has been relocated to the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre in Abuja. Ojukwu has yet to be told why he has been held for long since Wednesday, May 1, 2024, when he was said to have gone missing.
Though, this trend is not new. The police force has always been used by members of the upper echelon to suppress press freedom and the will of the people. But, it is more disturbing that the revelation is coming at a time when the Minister of Information and Orientation, Mohammed Idris, made a statement during a programme organised to mark International World Press Freedom Day that “no journalist has been hounded or incarcerated under the President Bola Tinubu administration.” It is becoming clearer that this is nothing but a reckless lie from the minister.
Let us assume without conceding that the journalist indeed violated the 2015 Cybercrime Act, the commando style of arrest is nonetheless most condemnable and must not be tolerated in a democracy. If at all the police force has any case against him, why must he be abducted all because you want him to answer some questions? We must not be taken back to the ‘80s when press freedom was trampled upon.
However, it is quite embarrassing that Egbetokun, who recently spoke against the establishment of State Police is naive about the protection the Nigerian Press enjoys as provided for in Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which has been domesticated by the virtue of African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Chapter 12, Laws of the Federation 1990.
It is obvious the country’s police boss does not understand how policing works. Who abducts journalists in a democracy if not a quack? There is even no basis for charging him to the law court again because his right to freedom of movement and dignity has already been trampled upon. In a working police department, the journalist should have been invited to come shed light on an investigation work being conducted after which he might be charged to the law court (if need be) after the completion of the investigation.
