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| The SSS is yet to release the two journalists (Photo Credit: naijanation.com) |
The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has condemned the Dec. 24 arrest of two of their colleagues who work for a popular Hausa newspaper, Al-Mizan and call for their immediate release.
Several
efforts by the union to find the whereabouts of the editor of Al-Mizan
Newspaper Malam Musa Muhammad Auwal and a reporter with the same Newspaper
Malam Aliyu Saleh, proved abortive, as some of the security agents contacted
claimed ignorance of their arrest.
In a statement, the union viewed this clandestine operation as "primitive and unwarranted”.
The
journalists were whisked away by agents of the State Security Service, SSS, to an unknown destination. Local media reports described
the operation as a “military-era Gestapo tactics”.
The reports said the
security operatives came in about 10 cars and first stormed the house of Aliyu
Saleh, a reporter who resides in Rigasa, Kaduna.
Mr. Saleh and his wife were rough-handled before their arrest at about 4:00
a.m. The gun wielding SSS men also stormed the house of Editor Musa Awwal, who
was also manhandled alongside his wife.
When
the police were through with harassing the couples, they left the two women and
arrested the two journalists, according to Premium times.
The chairman
of the union, Comrade Yusuf Idris stated that there are more civilized and
acceptable standards of carrying out investigations.
“This method
of attacking journalists and beating their wives in their homes before they
were taken away is unacceptable,” he said. “NUJ urged the security agencies to
produce the two journalists unharmed and adopt acceptable standards of
investigating alleged crimes, pointing out that, the right proper thing to do
is to take the matter to court for subsequent action.”
Local media link the arrest of the two journalists to a story headlined:
“Atrocities of JTF in Potiskum” which narrated how the Joint Task Force (JTF)
in Yobe State has been engaging in extra-judicial arrests and murder of
innocent citizens.
The
Cape Town-based Protection Rights of Journalist of Africa (PRJA), on Tuesday
condemn the arrest of two Nigerian journalists.
“We
condemn the brutality meted on our fellow colleagues Musa Mohammed Awwal and
Aliyu Saleh. The manner they were arrested and how their families were
subjected to inhuman treatment is an indictment on the government of Nigeria
and her repeated resolved to protect the rights of journalists,” Mr. Adamu
Abubakar Gwarzo, president of PRJA said.
The
constitution of Nigeria is very clear on such violations and what the law
requires. It is illegal to detain them above the stipulated 24 hours without
taking them to court.
“The situation
is dangerously callous. 48 hours after these colleagues are still held in
secret detention, sad,” the Head Cover and Investigations of the Sunday Trust Nuruddeen M. Abdallah in Abuja told The North Bank Evening Standard.
Well
before the Al-Mizan story was published, credible international organisations
like the Amnesty International have equally revealed gross human rights
violations by members of the JTF in their fight against the Boko Haram
insurgency.
PRJA
call on Mr. Goodluck Jonathan to call the SSS and the Police to order and to
resist their overzealous attitude that will further harm whatever progress his
government recorded in the
area of protecting the rights of journalists across the country.
On Wednesday Premium Times
reported that the SSS has demanded from senior journalists in Kaduna that
unless the Editor-in-Chief of Al-Mizan, Awwal Ibrahim, surrenders himself, they
would not release the two journalists, Aliyu Saleh and Awwal Musa.
The paper reported that at a
meeting Wednesday in Abuja with the leadership of the Nigeria Union of
Journalists, officials of the SSS promised to release the reporters as soon as
Mr. Ibrahim surrenders himself. Mr. Ibrahim’s house was also raided by the
security operatives at a time he was not at home. He has since gone into
hiding.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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