TBy Pascal Ibe
Claim
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, claimed no journalist has been incarcerated under Bola Tinubu administration.
Verdict
This is False. The incident of Editor of FirstNews, Segun Olatunji, who was abducted in March 2024 and held for two weeks by the military, is one controversial incident under president Tinubu administration which received wide condemnation.
Full Text
According to breezynewsnigeria ,the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said no journalist has been incarcerated under the Bola Tinubu administration for practising responsible journalism.
In a statement on Friday, the Minister spoke in Abuja during a press briefing organised by his ministry in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Environment and Ecological Management, and the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation to commemorate this year’s World Press Freedom Day.
Idris said, “I have not seen somebody in the life of this administration, for example, who has been put in jail, or who has gone into exile as a result of press freedom.
“We knew what has happened in this country in the past. Some decades ago, we know that you have to leave this country to be able to report. I can tell you that the press in Nigeria is largely free but that freedom will further be consolidated if honesty and transparency are upheld in the manner that we report
Other known news organizations also reported that the minister of Information, Mohammed Idris made this claim.
Verification
Verifying this claim by the Nigeria’s minister of Information, crimefacts news recall that in March 2024, reputable news organizations reported how the FirstNews editor, Segun Olatunji was abducted by the military.
The editor of FirstNews, an independent digital news network, Segun Olatunji, was abducted by at least ten armed men ‘two of them in military uniforms’ from his home in the Iyana Odo, Abule Egba area in Lagos on 15 March by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).
According to local news reports, armed men arrived at Olatunji’s residence a few minutes past 6:00 pm and forcefully took him away without any explanation. The journalists’ wife, who witnessed the abduction, said that Olatunji’s abductors searched for his phone and seized it immediately “before bundling him into a van like a common criminal. They refused to state his offence and where they were taking him,” according to the journalist’s wife.
The publisher of FirstNews, Daniel Iworiso Markson, said that during his detention, Olatunji apparently disappeared. “His phone line was switched off, nor did anyone speak to his family orthe Management of FirstNews to explain his whereabouts. If he was thought to have committed a crime relating to national security, Olatunji should have first been formally invited rather than this gestapo-style of arrest that reminds us of the dark days of the military era”.
The Management of FirstNews, wrote a letter to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Chris Musa on 21 March ‘demanding to know the whereabouts of its editor and appealing to the CDS to help them ascertain the exact location of Segun Olatunji’.
Olatunji was released after two weeks in detention.
Narrating what happened, in a report by Vanguard , Olatunji said whatever lies and puerile excuse that are being put forward now by the DIA as defence for their illegal action against him are nothing but an afterthought on their over-zealousness in obeying an illegal and illegitimate order from their civilian masters in the highest corridors of power in Abuja.
He said: “It’s curious that the DIA has suddenly just found its voice through this obscure website to state its own so called “side of the story” of my abduction by its armed agents one month after they were prevailed upon to release me from their illegal detention. The DIA’s use of this obscure online website to state their case – their own Special Purpose Vehicle, their own creation and lying machinery – is laughable. But whatever lies and puerile excuse that are being put forward now by the DIA as defence for their illegal action against my person are nothing but an afterthought on their over-zealousness in obeying an illegal and illegitimate order from their civilian masters in the highest corridors of power in Abuja.
He said: “It’s curious that the DIA has suddenly just found its voice through this obscure website to state its own so called “side of the story” of my abduction by its armed agents one month after they were prevailed upon to release me from their illegal detention. The DIA’s use of this obscure online website to state their case – their own Special Purpose Vehicle, their own creation and lying machinery – is laughable. But whatever lies and puerile excuse that are being put forward now by the DIA as defence for their illegal action against my person are nothing but an afterthought on their over-zealousness in obeying an illegal and illegitimate order from their civilian masters in the highest corridors of power in Abuja.
“It’s all nothing but tales by moonlight told to burnish their already battered image following their unfortunate involvement in a politically motivated matter in their desperate bid to please their civilian overlords. Anyone familiar with the modus operandi of the DIA, knows it’s usually an admixture of subtle threat, naked threat and outright force.
“Contrary to the lies by the DIA and its news website, there was nowhere an “emergency press conference” was organised by the Agency or any other body where I confessed to lying in the story published on Gbajabiamila and apologised to him. This so-called emergency press conference is a figment of the infantile imagination of the DIA and their sponsored website. This is part of the web of lies being woven by the DIA to justify the illegality of their action against me and to also discredit me.
“They should be bold enough to tell Nigerians where such an “emergency press conference” took place and when. They should also mention the various media organisations that covered their imaginary press conference.
“The N170,000 mentioned by the DIA-sponsored news website was picked from my WhatsApp conversation with my former colleague regarding his plan to purchase a used laptop from the Computer Village in Ikeja. How that has translated to an inducement for the Gbajabiamila story is what the DIA should explain. They should explain how they have threatened me to mention my former colleague, Rotimi Williams, as one of the sources for the Gbajabiamila story and how he had induced me with the N170,000.
“Concerning the re-publishing of the Gbajabiamila story by other websites, there’s no way First News can stop other news websites from copying its stories and re-publishing them. I want to state that I don’t even know many of the publishers of the other websites that published the Gbajabiamila story.
“Whatever statement the DIA has claimed I wrote was obtained from me under duress. The content of the statement was dictated by their Agents after they had ransacked my two phones for several days in search of the sources for stories published by First News. Before, they released me on March 28, I was even actually forced to apologise to Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to the President, in the statement over the story on him, and compelled me to promise not to engage in “terrorism” anymore. Whatever that means.”
Harassment Of Other Journalists Under Current Administration
On Friday, January 26, a reporter with the Ogun State Television, Bunmi Adigun, was attacked by some security agents attached to the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, in Ogun State. The journalist was attacked while he was covering the 66th birthday of the Abepa of Joga-Orile, Oba Adeyemi Adekeye, and the conferment of a chieftaincy title on Adeleke.
Recounting his ordeal, Adigun said, “Though the governor was amiable, his security details were unruly. They started misbehaving immediately after the governor arrived, pushing and harassing every journalist, even those who came with other special guests from Osun State.
“They pushed my cameraman and other cameramen. I thought that was enough until they got to where we were standing, I was harassed, embarrassed, and they nearly tore my clothes.”
In December 2023, some officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Anambra State brutalised a journalist in the state, Izunna Okafor.
Over 10 officers, who reportedly descended on the journalist, accused the media of being the problem of Nigeria.
Okafor, a reporter with 247ureports.com, was coming from Nnewi, where he was invited to cover the Anambra South Rally of the Soludo Ambassadors, when the NSCDC men descended on him.
It was gathered that the journalist was in the same bus provided by the organiser of the event to convey him and the NSCDC officials from Awka to the venue of the rally and back to Awka.
Conclusion
The claim by Nigeria’s minister of Information that no single journalist has been incarcerated under Tinubu’s administration is False.
The abduction of the FirstNews editor, Segun Olatunji by the military in March 2024, is one example of many underreported harassments journalists continue to face under president Tinubu’s administration.
