‘Climate of fear’: Nigeria intensifies crackdown on journalists

Fisayo Soyombo was eating an evening snack in Lagos in late October when a colleague called to warn him about a plan hatched by Nigerian government officials at a clandestine meeting to arrest him.

Hours earlier, the second in a three-part undercover series by the Abuja-based investigative journalist on corruption in Nigeria’s criminal justice system had been published.

“I made two more calls that night [to government sources] and it was clear I was in trouble,” Soyombo said. According to all three contacts, the government wanted to prosecute him under a law criminalising certain types of communication with inmates.

Soyombo pulled out of a public event he had travelled to Lagos for, and went into hiding.

Had he been detained, Soyombo would have been the latest victim of a crackdown on the media and freedom of speech this year in Nigeria, which is 12th out of 13 on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Impunity Index, a ranking of countries with the worst records of unsolved murders of journalists.

Soyombo said he received a lot of support on social media in the days after he went into hiding, and that the plan to arrest him has seemingly been dropped. The Nigerian correctional service eventually released a statement saying work could be done to clean up the system, and that it had “no intention of arresting or harassing” Soyombo.

At least three journalists are currently detained in Nigeria.

Omoyele Sowore, an activist and founder of the New York-based online news agency Sahara Reporters, was taken by secret police from a hotel room in Lagos in August. Sowore, who stood as a candidate in February’s presidential elections and usually lives in the US, has been charged with treason, cyberstalking and money laundering for allegedly sharing false and insulting information about the president, Muhammadu Buhari. Despite being granted bail earlier this month his lawyers said they were denied access to him, and he remains in detention and is currently on hunger strike.

Jones Abiri, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Weekly Source newspaper, was arrested in May and charged with cybercrime, sabotage and terrorism. The case related to 2016 allegations of links to rebels in the Niger Delta, after which he was detained by Nigeria’s intelligence agency for two years without trial.

In the southern state of Cross River, Agba Jalingo, who publishes the Cross River Watch paper, was arrested in August, days after the publication of an article about alleged corruption. Jalingo has been charged with treason and a bail request has been declined.


Human rights activists and civil society groups say that the muzzling of the press under Buhari has raised the spectre of a return to the dark days of military rule in Nigeria.

Buhari, a former army general who has been president since 2015, was also Nigeria’s head of state in the mid-1980s, when he took power in a military coup. At the time he introduced the draconian Public Officers (Protection Against False Accusation) law, better known as Decree 4. The law targeted the press, criminalising the publication of information deemed injurious to the junta.

“These [recent] incidents suggest a disturbing trend towards repression of freedom of expression and create a climate of fear which may stifle the media,” said Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Throwing reporters in jail for doing their job of informing the public sends a chilling message to journalists, activists and citizens.”


Soyombo said gagging the press was a misuse of power. “It is an irony that a president and state governors who ascended to power via the polls can suddenly not tolerate dissent,” he said.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/climate-of-fear-nigeria-intensifies-crackdown-on-journalists

Buhari the bastar.d demagogue bastardo

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

This thread is front page worthy ..

Buhari of 1983 is still the same now and foreve, A bloody tyrant and agent of darkness.

We warned Nigerians before the elections about how wicked buhari s but the APC BMC crew called us names [/b]

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari likes to call himself a “converted democrat.” At least that’s what he said during his 2015 presidential run, when he was attempting to re-brand himself as a reformer after a long career built on repression.

Yet dictatorial habits have proved hard to give up. When Buhari ran for president in 2015, it was with the promise of a Nigeria free from the political repression and silencing of dissent that were hallmarks of his tenure as head of state from 1983 to 1985.

Since his reelection earlier this year, matters have only gotten worse for journalists in Nigeria. Perhaps the most outrageous case involves Omoyele Sowore, a prominent journalist and political activist who remains in prison in Abuja, the Nigerian capital even after a judge last week ordered that he be released on bail.

He is being cited, among other things, for “cyberstalking” the president.A bizarre accusation, unless you consider reporting and political commentary a form of predatory behavior.It would seem that Buhari does.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/12/with-arrest-prominent-journalist-nigerias-buhari-is-up-his-old-tricks/
The dictatorship & tyranny of 1983-85 repeating itself all over.Jonathan warned Nigerians.

And some fools down here are supporting him

Useful idiots

"...The Nigerian public has been made to believe that the slow pace of action of the Federal Government headed by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was due to the enormity of the problems left by the last civilian administration."

"-...The real reason, however, for the very slow pace of action is due to lack of unanimity of purpose among the ruling body; subsequently, the business of governance has gradually been subjected to ill-motivated power play considerations.

The ruling body, the Supreme Military Council, has, therefore, progressively been made redundant by the actions of a select few members charged with the day-to-day implementation of the SMC’s policies and decision."

-"..The concept of collective leadership has been substituted by stubborn and illadvised unilateral actions, thereby destroying the principles upon which the government came to power. Any effort made to advise the leadership, met with stubborn resistance and was viewed as a challenge to authority or disloyalty.

The Coup Speech That Overthrow Buhari on 27th.Aug.1985.Same scenario in 1983-85, same today and same shall it remain until this catastrophe is kicked out just as IBB/Abacha also alleged then.

FREE SOWORE PROTEST IN LONDON TODAY



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyiuBF5SwFM

We hope Nigeria is not going back to days of fear.
All the effort put into hate speech bill and inconclusive corruption charges should be channel into giving us stable electricity and see how poverty will reduce.
If hate speech bill has been approved since 2013-14, only GOD knows if Lai Mohammed will be around.


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everybody knows that Buhari is a criminal terrorist vagabond gworo chewing bastard burukutu sipping gorilla

thunder scatter buhari Insha'Allah amin
thunder scatter buhari Insha'Allah amin
thunder scatter Aisha masha Allah Amin

Getting started already

let them say

n

This Sowore case will not go away easily,they fear Sowore

Buhari wants to kill off the South so we cant talk.

The Borders in the North are open as the ones in the south are shut.
Why are the Borders in the North Open at Night while the Borders in the South shut?

Listen to house of Reps Member expose the lie of Borders being Open in the North


https://twitter.com/olushola_shola/status/1194973367549464577

everytime I look at the picture of buhari, I am reminded of ibrahim, our gateman back in the day. they both have that typical abokii look. I don't know what possessed nigerians to vote for a gateman to rule us. this is what you get when you make a foolish decision.

Very true and it is sad.

Tyrant Buhari

Buhari has ruined the image of governance in Nigeria truth be told

Nigerians is a Zoo.

I will prefer to live with some animals than live in thesame compound with some Nigerians.

They just realized what we already knew

Abdul Aminu Jubril al Sudani, the chief tyrant and enthusiastic terrorist in Aso Rock!

chai, must foreign country always interfere before we take the necessary steps

WHY WHY WHY?

Bubu shld be likened to a bully who is scared of being bullied back at by his victim

scribble:
Buhari the bastar.d demagogue bastardo

Charity begins at home!!

I can't believe this is happening in 2019. Like we're in a "woke" era where everyone is now smarter, and voices are now louder yet one man is somewhere practicing Dictatorship in a democracy of hundreds of millions of people and yet everyone is quiet.

Are we even serious as a country?

I'm thoroughly disappointed

M

Upper level buhari 2023