From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The International Press Institute (IPI), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) have vowed to take action against the Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa and the Chief Defence Intelligence (CDI), Emmanuel Undiandeye, over the abduction of the Editor of FirstNews, Newspaper, Segun Olatunji.
He was arrested on March 18, in Lagos State, and detained for 11 days before his release in Abuja, by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) on Wednesday.
At a joint press briefing in Abuja, yesterday, Secretary of the NGE, Dr. Iyobosa Uwugiaren, on behalf of the IPI President, Musikilu Mojeed and the NUJ President Chris Isiguzo, called on President Bola Tinubu to punish those officers “for their bad behaviour.”
Uwugiaren narrated how the Presidency, the Nigeria Police Force, Lagos and Abuja), the Nigerian Army, the DIA, Ministry of Interior, Defence Headquarters (DHQ), and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), among others, were contacted for the whereabouts of Olatunji but they all claimed ignorance.
He, however, said it was on Monday that the IPI Nigeria was able to determine that the journalist was being detained and tortured by the DIA in Abuja.
According to him, the IPI then informed General Musa and Major General Undiandeye of its finding and asked them to release the imprisoned journalist.
He said they also provided information to top government officials, who also reached out to Generals Musa and Undiandeye, and, regrettably, they lied that the journalist was not in their custody.
He said: “This is not the end of this matter. The Nigerian media community shall consult further in the next few days on the actions to take against the CDS, the CDI, and the military regarding this matter.”
He commended the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi and the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Onilu, for their roles in facilitating the release of Olatunji.
“We are sure that many right-thinking members of society, including the international community, are both amazed and shocked by the lawlessness and fear-provoking action of the DIA, an agency under the command of Major General Undiandeye, who reports directly to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Musa.
“The DIA’s action makes us wonder about its real intention. Our suspicion is that they planned to secretly eliminate Mr. Olatunji so that members of the public could attribute his disappearance to unknown gunmen. But, we are glad they failed.
“For us, this vicious, uncivilised, unlawful and criminal action of the DIA is unacceptable. The action is alien to Nigeria’s democratic space.
“It is now clear that there are some officers in our military, who are still finding it difficult to subject themselves to civil authority 24 years after our country returned to representative governance.
“We do not think this kind of attitude should be condoned by President Bola Tinubu, particularly, and Nigerians, in general.
“If officers in a military institution like the DIA could hack a journalist’s telephone, mishandle his wife, abduct him, detain him secretly for 12 days and disobey senior officials of the Federal Government, then our democracy cannot be said to be safe.”
Meanwhile, Olatunji, despite his release, has raised concern over the safety of his life, noting that the officers who stormed his home had been trailing him for about two weeks to know the location of his house and his wife’s shop.
“I would like to say this; my life is not safe because they know everything about me. They know my house.
“They would have arrested me in my hometown. That was what I was meant to understand. On March 8, I was there. I went for an ICT programme by Senator Yayi. One of them told me how they had been trailing me. They told me how I entered the NUJ bus from my hometown and how I alighted in Abeokuta at a particular time, and said they were watching me.
“They had been trailing me truly for about two to three weeks because when they arrested me and they were taking me away, I saw that they had lodged in a hotel close to my wife’s shop, where they had been monitoring.
“It was from there that they located her shop and they arrested her and my one-year-old baby,” he said.
IPI’s Musikilu Mojeed, encouraged journalists to be vigilant and work together, knowing the plans of anti-democratic forces to thwart the efforts of journalists.
“First, I want to welcome back our colleague. It is like coming back from death. We have to be grateful to God for sparing his life.
“Now, the only other thing is that journalists must learn to come together and protect themselves. We want to thank all of you for the report you have done on this matter.
“You have to be more vigilant, going forward. You can see that there are still a lot of anti-democratic forces in our country, even though we are a democracy.
“We still have a lot of people who are still uncomfortable with the media and the kind of work the media does.
“We need to continue to hold each other’s hand as journalists and we must be able to stand firm when the right of any of us is breached in any form.
NUJ’s Isiguzo warned that democracy would be in danger if the trend of illegal detention of journalists should continue.