{"id":2859,"date":"2022-08-24T10:13:37","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T10:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=2859"},"modified":"2022-08-24T10:36:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T10:36:06","slug":"arbitrary-arrest-and-detention-of-journalists-citizens-raise-human-rights-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/arbitrary-arrest-and-detention-of-journalists-citizens-raise-human-rights-concern\/","title":{"rendered":"Arbitrary Arrest and Detention of Journalists, Citizens Raise Human Rights Concern"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Arrest, harassment and intimidation of journalists for criticism and defamation of political leaders or their associates, appear to have become rife, with State powers and resources deployed to serve personal interests. The most recent incident was the arrest of Agba Jalingo, a Nigerian journalist and publisher of the media outfit, Cross River Watch, on allegation of defamation against the sister-in-law of Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade. The journalist had on 19<sup>th<\/sup> August 2022, disclosed that his house was surrounded by policemen and that members of his family were being held hostage by the security agents. The Nigeria Police later confirmed his arrest and subsequent transfer to the Criminal Instigation Department in Abuja. He was eventually released the following day. It is appalling that an allegation of defamation, a civil matter is being handled in such a manner, apparently because of the status of the persons involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It will be recalled that Jalingo was arrested in\nAugust 2019 by the Cross River State government and charged with treasonable\nfelony, terrorism and cybercrime for accusing the Governor of diverting public\nfunds. He was later discharged and acquitted in March 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a similar development, a blogger on the Eagles\nForesight platform, Bashiru Hammed Adewale Olamilekan was arrested and detained\nby the Department of State Services (DSS) in Ogun State for publishing a story\nrelating to purported criminal records of the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun\nin the United States. His lawyer disclosed that he was subsequently transferred\nto the custody of the Nigeria Police. The blogger who was arrested on 13<sup>th<\/sup>\nMay 2022, has spent over 100 days in detention, despite deleting the said\npublication and tendering an apology to the Governor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These instances also bring to mind, the circumstances\nleading to the one month imprisonment of human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong for\ncontempt of court by the Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom State, Hon. Justice Ekaette\nObot. Effiong was in court to defend his client, Leo Ekpenyong, a lawyer in a\nlibel suit filed by Akwa Ibom State Governor, Emmanuel Udom. The Governor had\nsued Ekpeyong for defamation of character over a publication in which he\nalleged that the Governor procured judgment from an Election Petitions Tribunal\nfollowing the 2019 general elections. A High Court in Akwa Ibom State presided\nover by Justice Obot (who is now the Chief Judge of the State) ordered the\ndefendant to pay the sum of N1.5 billion to Governor Udom as damages, in a\njudgment delivered in December 2020. However, Inihebe Effiong, lawyer to\nEkpeyong challenged the judgment, and had the court set it aside in February\n2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the hearing of the case on 27<sup>th<\/sup> July\n2022, the judge was said to have asked a journalist to leave the court for\ncovering proceedings without permission; an order that Effiong protested,\ninsisting that the journalist had a right to make a video recording of the\nproceedings. He therefore refused to continue with his cross examination. Effiong\nwas also reported to have complained that the presence of several police\nofficers in the court room was intimidating. The judge accused him of being\ninsolent and stalling court proceedings. She went on to cite him for contempt\nand committed him to one month in a custodial centre. Individuals and groups\nalike have criticised Justice Obot\u2019s decision, saying that Effiong was denied\nfair hearing before his committal to prison.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several similar incidents involving political leaders\nand journalists have been observed in the past. It is disconcerting that rather\nthan challenging media publications alleged to be libelous in civil lawsuits,\nsome political office holders resort to channeling State instruments to violate\nthe rights of journalists and other citizens. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arrest, harassment and intimidation of journalists for criticism and defamation of political leaders or their associates, appear to have become rife, with State powers and resources deployed to serve personal interests. The most recent incident was the arrest of Agba Jalingo, a Nigerian journalist and publisher of the media outfit, Cross River Watch, on allegation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2859"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2869,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions\/2869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}