Nigerian journalist has raised the alarm that operatives of
Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services, have laid
siege to his home in Delta State.
It is not clear why the journalist’s home is under the siege of the
DSS operatives
The journalist, Prince Amour Udemude, a journalist based in Asaba, an
area in the Niger Delta told SaharaReporters: “As I speak with you my
residence is besieged by DSS officials in Delta State.
“I don’t know why they’re here.
“But I learnt they had called for reinforcement.
“I’m holed up in my apartment. I don’t know what’s really happening.”
A Nigerian journalist, Agba Jalingo, who was in police detention for
over a week for a report about an alleged diversion of N500 million by
the Cross River governor, charged with treason in September.
Jalingo, who is the publisher of CrossRiverWatch, a Cross River
State-based newspaper, was arrested and detained over a petition by
the government’s owned microfinance bank following the report in his
newspaper.
Jalingo’s newspaper has relentlessly criticized Ben Ayade, the state governor.
The journalist who was arrested in Lagos and driven by road to
Calabar, the capital city of the Cross River State, had sued the
police over his arrest and detention, which he said were illegal and a
breach of his fundamental human rights.
He is asking a court to order the police to pay him N150 million as
damages for the manner he was allegedly maltreated.
On August 5, 2019, Nigerian police arrested and detained at least four
journalists covering protests that took place across Nigeria in
connection with the hashtag #RevolutionNow, according to journalists
who spoke with CPJ and media reports.
In the morning of August 5, police in Calabar, the capital of
Nigeria’s southern Cross River state, detained Jeremiah Achibong, a
reporter with the privately owned CrossRiverWatch news website, and
Nickolas Kalu, a journalist with the privately-owned The Nation
newspaper, according to the journalists, who spoke with CPJ.
Officers in the anti-cult and anti-kidnapping police force arrested
the pair while the journalists were seeking information about the
arrest of Ugbal Jonathan, a CrossRiverWatch reporter who participated
in the #RevolutionNow protests and was detained by police earlier that
day, Achibong and Kalu said.
Also on August 5, police officers beat and arrested Victor Ogungbenro,
a video journalist with SaharaReporters, while he was covering a
protest in Lagos state, according to Ogungbenro, who spoke with CPJ
via phone, and a video of the attack and arrest circulated on
WhatsApp, which CPJ reviewed.
Ogungbenro told CPJ he repeatedly identified himself as a journalist,
but police slapped, kicked, and dragged him, and sprayed tear gas into
his face. Police arrested him and held him until August 6, when he was
released without charge after presenting a surety for his bail, he
said.
Police also arrested SaharaReporters journalist, Tosin Ajuwon, on
August 5 while he was covering a protest in Nigeria’s southwestern
Ondo State, according to a Premium Times report from the day and
Ajuwon, who spoke via phone with CPJ.
Ajuwon said he was filming the protest when police forcefully pulled
him into a van and drove him to a police station, where they detained
him for several hours before releasing him without charge.