A civil society organisation in Nigeria, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has requested the US President Donald Trump to impose a “temporarily” travel restriction into the US on state governors and other senior Nigerian officials who are “misusing the criminal justice system to jail journalists, bloggers and activists reporting on allegations of corruption”.
A Nigerian journalist and publisher of CrossRiverWatch, Agba Jalingo, is currently standing trial in Calabar for treason over a story alleging that the governor of Cross River state, Ben Ayade, diverted N500 million belonging to the state government.
Another Nigerian, a lawyer and a renowned critic of Mr Ayade, Joseph Odok, is also facing trial for terrorism in Calabar because of his constant criticism against the governor.
Both Mr Jalingo and Mr Odok could be sentenced to death if found guilty.
There are reported cases of several journalists, bloggers, and activists in Nigeria being arrested and arbitrarily detained across the country for making critical remarks against state governors, senators, and other government officials.
Apart from Cross River, other states where journalists, bloggers, and activists are coming under increasing attack are Abia, Ebonyi, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, and Kaduna, SERAP said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
“Also, 109 journalists were attacked between 2010 and 2015, and several more journalists, bloggers, radio and TV stations and activists have been targeted since 2015. At least 36 attacks on journalists were recorded between January and July 2019 alone, 30 of the attacks happening during the 2019 general elections.
“The attacks and harassment include arbitrary arrests and detention, physical attacks and even deaths. In 2018, at least 45 radio and TV stations were sanctioned by the authorities on unfounded allegations of breaching some codes of conduct,” the statement said.
SERAP said it wrote an open letter to Mr Trump on October 30, urging him to “use Presidential Proclamation 8697 (which allows the US Department of State to deny visas to foreign officials, their families and friends) who participate in serious human rights violations and other abuses such as misusing the criminal justice system to jail journalists, bloggers and activists to prevent them from reporting on allegations of corruption and other related cases.”
The CSO said media freedom and the right of citizens to know constitute a crucial bulwark of democracy.
“It is essential for the general progress of a democratic society if people are to effectively monitor their government’s affairs and democratically participate in the running of society, they must have access to government-held information, which the media should be allowed to freely report,” it said.
Continuing, the CSO said, “Proactive initiatives to protect media freedom and human rights that would invariably contribute to transparency and accountability globally have always been in the best long-term interests of the US. Your application of targeted sanctions would reaffirm US commitments to human rights, and media freedom and help to supplement the criminal justice in Nigeria and be entirely consistent with the US international obligations.
“SERAP believes that your government’s imposition of targeted sanctions against those accused of misusing the criminal justice system to attack, intimidate, harass and jail journalists, bloggers and activists in Nigeria would help to deter other state governments, governors and other senior public officials from limiting the enjoyment of Nigerians’ right to information about what their government is doing in their names.
“Such sanctions would not violate due process and presumption of innocence principles, as long as the reasons for the sanctions are communicated to those that may be affected, as what is recommended is a temporary travel ban. We argue that the imposition of temporary travel bans on public officials complicit in violation of media freedom and preventing reporting of allegations of corruption is a preventive and not punitive measure.”
