On September 9, 2025, operatives of the Nigeria Police arrested Mr Nasir Hassan Yelwa, a reporter for Iran Press News Agency and a member of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), while covering a public Maulid procession in Abuja by members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), popularly called Shiites.
Mr Yelwa was reportedly picked up by policemen in the Apo area of Abuja at about 2 PM and taken to the Abattoir facility, the former SARS office, where he was detained. Eyewitnesses say he showed his press identity card; nonetheless, the police seized his camera and arrested him.
Recounting the incident that led to his arrest, he said that after the Shiites had ended their procession and prayers and people were dispersing, a convoy of heavily armed police officers stormed the area and started firing teargas and beating people, and in the melee that ensued, many people, including bystanders, got caught in the chaos and were injured.
The reporter said he took refuge somewhere and was recording how people were being beaten with brutal force. Shortly after, he said he wanted to board a taxi to return to his residence, when the police quickly approached him menacingly even as he was holding on to his equipment as well as his press identity card.
He said an officer shouted at him, asking, “Who are you? He said he told them he was a journalist, and they requested to see his identity card, which he said he promptly showed them. He said they asked him to enter their vehicle.
Mr Yelwa said that when he tried reaching out to his colleague, Ochiaka, the former Secretary of Abuja NUJ, police officers overpowered and wrestled the phone from his hand while speaking with Ochiaka.
He said the police took him and 12 other people to Area Command, where they were inhumanely paraded as suspected criminals. He said the police took them to the abattoir, a former Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), where they were locked up for two days. On September 12, police took them to the Magistrate Court at Wuse Zone 6, and unfortunately, the judge was absent, which meant that they had to be taken back and locked up until September 15.
On September 15, they were again taken to court and charged with unlawful assembly and violence. They pleaded not guilty. He said the police prosecutor singled out seven of the detainees for discharge, saying that their investigation revealed that they were not involved in the unlawful assembly, leaving six of them behind. The judge adjourned the case to 30th September, 2025. It was then that his lawyer asked for his bail, which the judge granted.
