Coordinator of the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, Chido Onumah, has been arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS.
The journalist, who was returning from a trip to Spain was picked up at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, yesterday, Mr. Mart Obono, a lawyer, told The Cable.
“We traveled together for a conference in UK. But we didn’t come back together because he went to Spain to finalize his Ph.D thesis and I went to London but got back last week Sunday. He was just returning from the trip today (yesterday) when he was picked at the airport,” Obono reportedly said.
The reason the DSS arrested Onumah, a known critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was not clear at press time as Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesman had not responded to enquiries on the development.
In a statement confirming the arrest, AFRICMIL demanded the immediate release of the journalist.
“AFRICMIL condemns in strong terms the unjustifiable arrest of Mr Onumah and demands his immediate and unconditional release,” it said in the statement issued by Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, its spokesman.
“Waylaying law-abiding citizens should not be turned into the pre-occupation of an entire security outfit. The arrest of Mr Onumah, coming on the heels of harassment of other critical voices, smacks of grotesque days of the Nigerian history that Mr Onumah and his comrades fought steely against,” the statement read.
The arrest of Onumah is one of the series of travails journalists have faced in the hands of security operatives in recent time.
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.
Two days earlier, the DSS had arrested Mr. Omoyele Sowore, the Publisher of Sahara Reports in connection with planning #RevolutionNow.
In the morning of August 5, the police in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, detained Jeremiah Archibong, a reporter with the privately owned CrossRiverWatch news website, and Nickolas Kalu, a journalist. They were arrested by officers in the anti-cult and anti-kidnapping police force while seeking information on the arrest of Ugbal Jonathan, a CrossRiverWatch reporter who participated in the #RevolutionNow protests and was detained by police earlier that day.
Police also arrested Sahara Reporters journalist Tosin Ajuwon on August 5 while he was covering a protest in Ondo State.
Also on August 5, police officers beat and arrested Victor Ogungbenro, a video journalist with Sahara Reporters while covering a protest in Lagos State.
On January 7, 2019, Nigeria’s security forces raided the offices of the Daily Trust newspaper and arrested two of its journalists over the paper’s coverage of the Boko Haram insurgency.
A team of secret police, soldiers and civil defence paramilitary stormed the newspaper’s office in the northern city of Maiduguri, detaining its Northeast Regional Editor Uthman Abubakar, and reporter, Ibrahim Sawab.
