|
Journalist charged with
violating Official Secret Acts
On November 2, 2006, the
Federal Government Nigerian filed criminal charges against Mr. Shehu
Garba, a former President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and currently
media consultant to the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, at the
Federal High Court in Abuja accusing him of violating the Official
Secrets Act.
Garba was charged with
illegally obtaining, reproducing, and retaining documents relating to
the death, in a bomb blast in 1997, of Bagauda Kaltho, then Kaduna State
correspondent for "The New"' magazine.
The three-count charge
against Garba alleged that:
.Between January 2001 and
September 2006 he obtained classified matter, namely the intelligence
summary on the suspected involvement of Kaltho in the Kaduna Durbar
Hotel bombing and thereby committed an offence under section 1(1)(b) of
the Official Secrets Acts;
.During the same period,
he reproduced and retained the same classified matter in violation of
the same section the Official Secrets Act.
His trial could not
proceed on November 2 as the trial judge, Justice Binta Murtala Nyanko,
was attending a conference. The trial was fixed for December 14, 2006.
Bagauda was killed in
mysterious circumstances in 1997 and subsequently accused by security
agents of planting the bomb that killed him at the Durbar Hotel in
Kaduna, northern Nigeria. The allegations at that time provoked a public
outcry from his employers and human rights organizations in the country
who alleged that he was killed by the repressive government of the late
dictator, General Sani Abacha. Garba was President of the Nigerian
Guild of Editors at the time of Kaltho's death.
Garba had a running battle
with security and intelligence agents from the middle of the year
following a series of press statements he issued and along with dozens
of supporting documents, including bank cheques, which he released to
the media alleging corrupt practices committed by Nigerian President,
Olusegun Obasanjo, and several presidential aides. His house and offices
were raided and searched by security agents while he was arrested and
detained on a number of occasions.
Garba was also previously
charged with obtaining confidential documents which he was not
authorized on behalf of the Government to obtain. However, the previous
charges against him did not specify what classified document he
obtained. His lead counsel, Mr Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), filed a notice of
preliminary objection to the earlier charge on the ground that it did
not disclose the particulars of the offence for which he was charged.
|
