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MRA Condemns The Arrest, Assault And
Detention of Adewale Adeoye
Lagos, Tuesday, June 29, 1999:
Media Rights Agenda (MRA) condemns Friday, June 25, arrest
assault and detention of Mr. Adewale Adeoye, chairman of Journalists for
Democratic Rights (JODER) and an Assistant Editor with
The Punch newspaper.
Mr. Adeoye was arrested along with 16 other persons by men
of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), at Ketu market for no just cause. In
spite of his identifying himself as a journalist, he was beaten, wounded
and later detained at the Ogudu Police Station overnight till late
afternoon of the following day. He was denied food, water and medical
attention. His shoe and a substantial part of his money kept with the
police at the counter have remained unaccounted for.
MRA frowns at this flagrant abuse of Mr. Adeoye and
innocent citizens’ human rights. We are particularly concerned that this
latest act of harassment and intimidation has taken place during a
civilian democratic government when civilized conduct is supposed to be
the watchword of every security personnel.
We call on the Lagos State Government to take urgent steps
to redress this unwholesome situation by putting an immediate end to such
harassment of journalists and innocent citizens by taking disciplinary
measures against the security agents who are responsible for the illegal
arrest, assault and detention. It is only by so doing that the Government
can regain some measure of credibility and assure that it is not business
as usual as was the case with the out-gone military regimes.
For further information, please contact:
Osaro Odemwingie
Publications Officer
Tel: 01-4930831
Fax: 01-4930831
E-mail:
mra@rcl.nig.com
Web site:
www.internews.org/mra
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