THE Coalition of Whistleblower Protection and Press Freedom (CWPPF) has condemned the growing trend of attacks on journalists and media houses which have published investigative reports about corruption allegedly perpetrated by government officials.
The coalition, made up of media houses and civil society organisations, said in a statement on Wednesday morning, that the trend was dangerous and threatened not only the vibrancy of the critical media in Nigeria but also its democracy.
“On Monday, December 13, Fisayo Soyombo, the Founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, FIJ, was arrested and detained at the Police Headquarters in Abuja by the Monitoring Unit of the Inspector General of Police, IGP.
“The journalist was detained over an investigative report, which exposed corruption in the management of over N1 billion appropriated for building transit camps for police officers across the country. He was released on bail after over six hours in police detention while investigations into alleged charges of ‘criminal defamation and cyber stalking’ against him have been postponed to mid – January, when Soyombo might be invited back for questioning.”
The coalition said the allegations of criminal defamation and cyberstalking were made by Assistant Inspector general of Police (AIG) Joseph Egbunike, who was fingered in FIJ’s report as the arrowhead of the alleged misappropriation of over N1 billion for Police transit camp projects in Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Katsina and Kano State, when he was Commissioner of Police in charge of Budget and Finance.
The group said that it was shocking that the Nigeria Police, the institution called to account in the investigative report, and its leadership, would be more interested in defending an officer fingered in a corruption allegation instead of investigating the allegations against him.
The coalition noted that in arresting and claiming to be investigating a case of criminal defamation and cyber stalking against Soyombo, the Police wanted to play the ignoble role of being a judge in its own case.
It further pointed out that it was equally shocking that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, which came to power ostensibly to rid the country of corruption, was condoning such abuse of state power and resources by those accused of corruption to victimise media practitioners performing their constitutional duty of upholding the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.
“It is particularly astounding that the police authorities have chosen to abuse their powers by using strong arm tactics against the media when the police officer alleged to be complicit in a monumental act of corruption has offered no exculpatory evidence or explanation in rebuttal of the allegations made against him,” the coalition further said.
“Sadly, this is not an isolated case. For over four months now, another public official, Dr. Rufus Egbegba, the Director General of the National Biosafety Management Agency, NBMA, has attempted to use institutions of the state to intimidate and harass the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, and its journalists for a report on contract inflation at the agency.
“Dr. Egbegba has used the Police Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCID; Department of State Security, DSS; Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC; and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (Office of the Federal Director of Public Prosecution,) to threaten, intimidate or harass ICIR reporter, Niyi Oyedeji and its Editor, Ajibola Amzat, just for doing their work.”
“In Kaduna, Lukas Binniyat was arrested by the Kaduna State Command Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for the publication of a story about the massacre of innocent citizens in southern Kaduna. Mr Samuel Aruwan, the commissioner of Home Affairs and internal security, had reported to the police stating a part of the report indicts him hence his arrest. These recurring arrests and harassment of Nigerian journalists by state actors is an indicator of the unwillingness of the government to accept and appreciate the role of media in a democracy,” the coalition noted.
The coalition said it considered the work of the media, particularly investigative journalists exposing corruption by state institutions and officials, as complementary to the Federal Government’s publicly stated policy of fighting corruption.
It stressed that in exposing corruption in government, the media was playing its constitutional role of holding the government and public office holders to account on behalf of the people.
“If the Federal Government is sincere and serious about combating corruption, it should therefore see the critical media as partners and not adversaries. It should not only encourage the media but also support and protect it to play its accountability role much more effectively,” the group noted.
“By continuing to allow government officials accused of corruption to abuse state power and resources to shield themselves from scrutiny, the Government is undermining the credibility of its supposed anti-corruption war.”
The group called on the Federal Government to take measures to put an end to these attacks on the critical media and protect journalists from corrupt government officials who had been exposed by journalists through their investigative reporting.
The CWPPF warned that if the trend of public officials attacking journalists for their critical reporting was allowed to continue, it would embolden others and pose a grave danger to journalism practice and freedom of the press in Nigeria, which were very critical pillars in building and sustaining democracy in any society.
“In fact, this trend, if not immediately checked, will pose a very serious risk to Nigeria’s fledgling democracy.”
The CWPPF is a collection of media and civil society organisations in Nigeria made up of The ICIR, Premium Times, Order Paper Advocacy Initiative, The Cable
Others are: African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Civic Media Lab, Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC), International Press Centre (IPC), Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Paradigm Initiat Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and HEDA Resources Centre.