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Police Harass, Detain Journalists Over Newspaper
Reports
On 22 June 2005, the chairman of the Kogi State branch of the Nigeria
Union of Journalists (NUJ), Segun Omolehin, was arrested by the Police in
Lokoja, the state capital, after he honoured an invitation by the Police
requesting a meeting to resolve a lingering crisis between the Police and
journalists in the State.
Omolehin's arrest is the latest incident in the harassment of journalists
launched by the State Police Command since 20 June following stories
published by the correspondents of three newspapers recounting an
encounter between the state's Commissioner of Police, Mr. Thomas
Bamidele, and armed robbers.
The three dailies, "The Vanguard", "The Nigerian Tribune", and the "Daily
Times" reported that the State Police Commissioner, who was dressed in
civvies and driving a private car, ran into armed bandits on June 18 along
a highway linking Lokoja to the neighbouring Okene town, and was allegedly
subjected to physical abuse by the robbers who forced him to do frog-jumps
along with other victims of the robbery incident.
Angered by the reports, a detachment of regular policemen and agents of
the State Security Service (SSS) in the state on 20 June laid siege at the
state secretariat of the union in an effort to find and arrest the
journalists who wrote the reports, although the Police have not denied
that the incident occurred. Since taking over the NUJ secretariat, the
security agents have been harassing and intimidating journalists going
into the premises. An unspecified number of journalists are reported to
have been arrested in the process. This resulted in a face-off between
the journalists in the state and the Police.
The secretary to the State branch of the NUJ, Bartholomew Ademu, said in a
statement on 22 June that Omolehin was invited by the Police Commissioner
to a meeting to find ways of resolving the dispute, but was arrested when
he went to the state police headquarters to honour the invitation. He has
remained in police custody since then.
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