On the day acting President Yemi Osinbajo ordered the overhaul of the dreaded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the Nigeria Police Force on Tuesday detained a PREMIUM TIMES reporter, Samuel Ogundipe, for refusing to reveal the source of an article he wrote.
The story disclosed a letter from Inspector General, Ibrahim Idris, to Osinbajo, the online newspaper said in a statement signed by its publisher, Dapo Olorunyomi.
“The Nigerian police, through the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on Tuesday arrested and detained the reporter,” Olorunyomi said.
“Apart from Mr Ogundipe, this newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief, Musikilu Mojeed, and its education correspondent, Azeezat Adedigba, were also briefly detained and manhandled by the police at the SARS headquarters in Abuja.
“Ms Adedigba was later released after about three hours of detention.
“Mr Mojeed and Mr Ogundipe were driven from the SARS headquarters in Abuja to the IGP Monitoring Unit at Force Headquarters where Mr Ogundipe was made to write a statement.
“At the Force headquarters, a Deputy Commissioner of Police at the IGP Monitoring Unit, Sani Ahmadu, was heard directing lawyers to “rush to court” to obtain a warrant to detain Mr Ogundipe.
“They repeatedly asked the journalist to disclose his source for a story published by this newspaper.
The police reportedly became furious when Mojeed alerted the DCP that it was wrong compelling a journalist to disclose a source of information.
“PREMIUM TIMES especially condemns the Gestapo manner in which the Nigeria Police have taken Mr Ogundipe into custody and hereby demands his immediate and unconditional release.
“His detention is in gross violation of Mr Ogundipe’s rights, the Nigerian laws and all democratic tenets; and is an unacceptable abridgement of his citizenship and professional privileges,” the statement continued.
The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), International Press Centre (IPC) also condemned the arrest and detention of the reporter.
NUJ President, Abdulwaheed Odusile, in a statement on Tuesday, said, “The NUJ is horrified by the constant harassment by the police and other agents of the state and requests that such should abate forthwith.
“Confidentiality of sources is necessary for good journalism to flourish and journalists should not be coerced into revealing such sources.”
The NUJ, therefore, called for the unconditional release of the detained journalist and ‘an end to all forms of impunity against the media.’
The IPC, in a statement by its Director, Lanre Arogundade, however, described the arrest of the journalists as “a clear assault on press freedom and a clear threat to the safety of the detained journalist and his colleagues.”
It said, “The police authorities are also hereby reminded that the Freedom of Information Act, a federal law, enacted in 2011, in Section 16 (c), confers on journalists, the media ‘Journalism Confidentiality Privileges’ and as such should desist from engaging in unconstitutional acts.”
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) equally condemned the clampdown by the police and asked the force to immediately release the detained Premium Times journalists.
“We strongly condemn any attempt to coerce journalists performing their legitimate duties,” MURIC Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, said.
