The International Press Centre (IPC) has condemned the detention of two journalists by the police in Ekiti and Kano states.
In a statement on Wednesday, the IPC said Sodeeq Atanda, a senior reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), was arrested on Tuesday by the Ekiti police command in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
The centre said Atanda was invited over a petition filed by Abayomi Fasina, vice-chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), who accused him of cyberbullying, blackmail and criminal defamation.
He was reportedly held for more than eight hours on the orders of Joseph Eribo, the state commissioner of police, and allegedly forced to walk barefoot at the police headquarters before being granted bail under what the IPC described as “stringent conditions”.
Advertisement
Lanre Arogundade, executive director of IPC, said the action of the police amounted to an attempt to stifle press freedom and intimidate journalists reporting on matters of public interest.
“The police should desist from being used by elites to assault, arrest and detain journalists; instead, they should uphold the tenets of democracy,” the statement reads.
Arogundade also accused the Kano state police command of harassing Abdulaziz Aliyu, a reporter with Waraka Online TV, who was said to have been detained over a story he published.
Advertisement
Yakubu Salisu, chairman of the Association of Kano Online Journalists (ASKOJ), confirmed the incident to IPC, noting that Aliyu “was detained over a story he published some months back”.
The IPC executive director said if the police had issues with published stories or with the concerned journalists, they should seek redress through lawful means rather than resorting to intimidation.
