The Publisher of Taraba Truth and Facts and Chief Executive Officer of Rock FM Jalingo, in Taraba State, Ayodele Samuel, has been in detention for about nine days following a report accusing the governor of shoddy deals in the privatisation of government properties.
He was charged to court and granted bail but the authorities have allegedly refused to release him. He was sent to prison on 5 December.
The Taraba Truth and Fact reported on Thursday that their publisher has been detained for nine days with efforts being made to get him released.
The publisher was arraigned before a magistrate, Garba Garba, in Jalingo, the state capital on a two-count charge of defamation and injurious falsehood by the state government.
The government claims the newspaper’s report alleging corruption in the privatisation of the Mambilla Beverages Company and the sale of the state’s liaison office in Abuja is false and defamed the reputation of the state’s Governor.
However, the defendant, Mr Samuel, pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge. He was subsequently granted bail by the court.
The bail conditions included a fee of ten million naira (N10,000,000,), and two sureties resident in Jalingo, Taraba State, with landed properties worth five million naira (N5,000,000) each.
After meeting the bail conditions, it was not clear why Mr Samuel was not released but remanded at the police headquarters and subsequently in prison.
Before he was arrested Mr Samuel had accused the state government of trying to arrest him.
“The Taraba State Government is angry with some of our reports, specifically over a report where Governor Darius Ishaku had plans to sell the Taraba liaison office,” he said.
He was arrested hours after making the statement and arraigned before the State Magistrate Court in Taraba allegedly without due process and legal representation and thereafter remanded in detention where he is being held without access to his lawyers or family.
Meanwhile, a human rights activist, Bako Benjamin, and others have condemned Mr Samuel’s arrest.
