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Airport Security
Confiscate Journalist’s Published Work
On July 20, 2006, men and
officers of the State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria’s intelligence
police at the Port Harcourt Airport, Rivers State in the Niger delta
confiscated 115 copies of Ms. Ibiba Don Pedro’s book titled “Oil
in the Water: Crude Power and Militancy in the Niger Delta”. The
book is a compilation of her published journalistic works.
Ms. Don Pedro was on her
way to London through Paris to attend the second commemoration of Isaac Boro
Day which was billed to hold on July 22. While checking into Air France,
she was called to identify her luggage: she had two, which were
put through the screening machine. One of the officers, probably a of
the Nigerian Customs or SSS, demanded that the bag containing the books
be brought down from the conveyor belt. That done, Ibiba was surrounded
by different officers of the security agencies who screen travelers.
They demanded that she open the bag.
When they saw the title of
the book, they immediately declared that it was seditious material.
According to Ibiba: “So many people were talking to me all at
once and so I demanded to see who ever was in authority as I
refused to be intimidated.”
She was led to the SSS office within the
checking area where four officials interrogated her for about one
hour fifteen minutes. She was prevented from reaching out to anybody as
she was asked to switch off her mobile phone off or have it confiscated.
She said that the security
men claimed the books were seditious material and capable of
heightening the tension in the Niger delta, they took particular
interest in the phrase “self determination” bit from a statement on
the back cover, which she said she took from an interview she had with
Alfred Ilenre in 2005.
They then informed her
they were waiting for a call from their boss in Abuja to
determine whether to release the books or not. When the
call finally came through at about 11. 30 PM (Local time), a
few minutes to the take off of the flight, she was asked to continue her
trip without the books.
In a chat with Media
Rights Agenda, Ms. Don Pedro, she said: “I
was told they were only doing their job, but were on instruction to
prevent seditious material from getting out of the country.
“ … I argued with them and
asked if they knew about the internet, they answered and said they had
nothing against books circulating within Nigeria, that what they don’t
want was the books going out of Nigeria.”
Ms. Don Pedro sued the SSS
and October 4, a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt granted her to
enforce her fundamental rights against the SSS and the Attorney General
of the Federation, for several breaches.
Ibiba had sought court
permission to sue for the seizure of her books and illegal detention at
the Port Harcourt International Airport on July 20, 2006 while she was
on her way to London.
She asserted that
her arrest, detention and the seizure of her books while boarding an Air
France flight to London on the said date without any provocation,
violated her fundamental rights.
She also sought the order
of the court for the defendants to return the books within seven days or
pay her N230,000 and an order of the court to compel the defendants to
pay her N2m infringement of her rights.
Justice Obaigele Nwodo,
presiding Judge of the Court however, refused to grant the application
for a stay of action or any further action by the defendants on grounds
that there was no threat or action reported to warrant the order.
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